Questions for Week 10
Lindemann, Esau's Tears, Chapters 3-8 (pp. 97-272)
Introduction
to Part Two (pp. 97-101)
What
is usually meant by the term “modern anti-Semitism”? What does Lindemann mean by this term?
According
to Lindemann, in what ways was political anti-Semitism modern and in what ways
was it anti-modern?
In
what sense was anti-Semitism a “movement” in the late 1800s?
According
to Lindemann, was anti-Semitism in this period always “racist”?
Explain.
What
does Lindemann think “linked” various anti-Semitic groups?
Why
does Lindemann consider the year 1873 so important to the history of modern
attitudes towards Jews?
Chapter
3
What
is the Sonderweg thesis of German history, and how does it explain German
anti-Semitism? Does it have its
critics? Explain.
According
to Lindemann, in what way was anti-Semitism in Germany linked to the depression
that began in 1873? And what about
Germany made the German anti-Semitic movement influential across Europe?
Was
the emancipation of Jews in Germany widely supported in German territories in
the first half of the 1800s? Explain.
How
does Lindemann characterize German political culture in the mid-1800s,
particularly in regard to Jews? What
is his point about the difference between liberal reforms in Germany and those
in France and England?
Why
were the Junkers so important to German politics and the state’s approach to
Jews after 1871? How did Junkers
understand the difference between community (Gemeinschaft) and society (Gesellschaft)?
And does Lindemann see a straight line from the Junkers to the Nazis?
Explain.
How
does Lindemann explain Jewish upward social mobility in the late 1800s, and why
did this “rise” lead to anti-Jewish hostilities after 1873?
What
social groups in Imperial Germany does Lindemann see as most prone to
anti-Semitism and why? What
arguments of the anti-Semites had special appeal to the Mittelstand?
How
was anti-Semitism related to German romaniticization of the “rural” past?
How
did the 1873 crash affect German attitudes regarding Jews?
How did liberal German newspapers explain the crash?
What
was the Kulturkampf, what role did anti-Semites claim that Jews had in this
policy, and what were the actual positions taken by Jews regarding this policy?
Did German Catholics turn entirely against Jews as a result?
Why
does Lindemann consider Bismarck’s move to the political Right in the late
1870s so important?
What
is the main point of this chapter?
Chapter
4
According
to Lindemann, how did the shift in German politics in the late 1870s influence
the character of anti-Semitic political ideas and rhetoric?
What
were Wilhelm Marr’s main arguments about Jews, and what is Lindemann’s main
argument about Marr? Why does
Lindemann consider the historical context of Marr’s ideas is so important to
understand, and does he think Marr was a proto-Nazi?
What
were Heinrich von Treitschke’s main arguments about Jews, and what are
Lindemann’s main arguments about Treitschke?
What
major arguments did Heinrich Graetz make about Jewish history, and why did this
lead to conflict with Treischke?
What
were Adolf Stoecker’s main arguments about Jews, and what are Lindemann’s
main arguments about Stoecker?
What
was the Christian Social Workers’ Party?
Was it (and Stoecker) entirely anti-modern? And did it have much success with workers?
Explain.
Does
Lindemann think that Marr, Stoecker, etc., are responsible for making ordinary
Germans into anti-Semites? What is
his point here?
What
was the Berlin Movement, and what was the Anti-Semitic Petition?
Why does Lindemann describe this movement as “moderate”?
Does
Lindemann think that German anti-Semites were “united” in the 1880s, or that
they were a particularly successful political movement?
Explain.
Were
German Jews united in their opposition to the anti-Semitic movement?
Explain.
Did
all non-Jewish opponents of anti-Semitism base their positions on moral grounds?
Explain. Did they reject all
of the arguments of the anti-Semites? Explain.
What
were Otto Bockel’s main arguments about Jews, and what are Lindemann’s main
arguments about him? What factors
contributed to Bockel’s popularity among Hessian peasants (and in particular,
what characterized relations between peasants and Jews in Hessenland)?
What
point is Lindemann making throughout this chapter about the historical context
of the German anti-Semitic movement of the 1880s, and what point is he making
about its relationship to Nazism?
Chapter
5
According
to Lindemann, in what ways was the socialist movement similar to and in what
ways did it differ from the anti-Semites in regard to Jews?
Were
socialists supportive of race theories? Explain.
Were
socialists in general “pro-Jewish”? Explain.
What
were Marx’s main arguments regarding Jews, and what is Lindemann’s main
argument about Marx?
What
positions did early French socialists like Proudhon take regarding Jews?
Did the views of late 19th century French socialists differ
from those of Proudhon, Fourier, etc., in this regard?
Explain.
What
is Lindemann’s main point regarding Jewish attitudes towards socialism in the
1800s? Were most Jews
pro-socialist? How and why did
views on this matter differ among Jews in Eastern and Western Europe?
What
is Lindemann’s main point regarding the attitude of the German social
democrats toward Jews? Did the SDs
reject stereotypes of Jews? Were
they anti-Semites? Explain.
How
in general did they interpret the anti-Semitic movement?
In
this and other chapters, Lindemann says that the “honeymoon” between Jews
and liberalism was coming to an end in the late 1800s—was this true also of
socialism?
What
position did most socialist factions take on the issue of Jewish nationalism and
Jewish culture?
What
is the main point of this chapter?
Chapter
6
What
made issues of religion, nationality, language, etc., so complex in
Austria-Hungary, and how did this complicate the status of Jews?
Why
does Lindemann describe Galicia as “another pale of settlement”?
Why
does Lindemann describe Austria as “between Russia and Germany”?
How did Austrian culture and political culture differ from that of
Germany?
Was
Emperor Franz Joseph anti-Jewish? What
was the legal status of Jews in Austria-Hungary?
Why
does Lindemann describe the “rise” of Jews in Austria-Hungary as especially
dramatic?
What
point is Lindemann making about the difference between Jewish middle class
culture in Vienna and that in Germany?
What
point is Lindemann making about the relationship between “ethnic insecurity”
in Austria and attitudes towards Jews?
What
point is Lindemann making about the source of anti-Jewish attitudes in Austria
in the period after the 1873 crash? Does
he think that anti-Semitism in this time and place had nothing to do with actual
Jewish behavior? Explain.
According to Lindemann, why was German nationalism in Austria increasingly anti-Jewish in the 1880s? And why was anti-Semitism such a powerful force in Austrian politics?
How does Lindemann explain the basis of Catholic anti-Semitism in Austria?
What is Lindemann’s point about the ideas of Vogelsong? Von Shonerer?
What is
Lindemann’s point about the direction in what Austrian politics headed after
1882 and why, and how this related to Jews?
Was anti-Semitism
unchallenged in Austria?
What is the main
point of this chapter?
Chapter 7
What does Lindemann
consider most important to understand about France in the 1800s?
Explain.
Why did Jews in
France “stand out” less (in the negative sense) than did Jews in Germany,
Austria-Hungary, or Russia? Why did
Jewish immigration to France cause tensions among French Jews, and why were
these less significant in France than in other countries discussed so far?
What characterized
the politics of most French Jews in the Third Republic?
In what sense were
Jews in France associated with “modernity”
(eg, with the Ferry Laws and various financial scandals), and does
Lindemann consider anti-Semitic fears regarding such issues as mere
“fantasy”? Explain.
What were the main
arguments of the Boulangists regarding Jews, and what is Lindemann’s main
argument regarding the Boulangists?
Why were Paris
shopkeepers “open” to anti-Semitic agitation?
What is Lindemann’s point here?
What is
Lindemann’s point regarding the Assumptionist movement in the Catholic church?
What is
Lindemann’s main point about the anti-Semitic ideas of Toussenel and Barre?
What does he mean by “aesthetic anti-Semitism”?
Why does Lindemann
describe Drumont as a “scissors and paste” anti-Semite?
Was he able to turn his views into a mass movement?
Explain.
Does Lindemann think
that there was a “gathering storm” of anti-Semitism in France in the 1880s?
Explain. Why does he
describe French anti-Semitism of this period as “moderate”?
And before the Dreyfus affair, did it seem as if political anti-Semitism
in France was gaining ground?
How does Lindemann
explain the Dreyfus Affair, and what is his main point?
Does he think that Dreyfus’ arrest was caused by anti-Semitism?
And what role did personality play in the “Affair”?
Were all of
Dreyfus’ supporters moved by opposition to anti-Semitic ideas?
Explain.
Lindemann says that
the Affair reshaped political views about Jews and of Jews in France—what is
his point here?
Does Lindemann think
that a “Dreyfus Revolution” really took place in French politics?
Explain. What is his main
point about the impact of the Affair?
Chapter 8
In general, what
does Lindemann consider significant about the weakness of modern anti-Semitism
in England and the USA, and what questions does he think this raises?
How does Lindemann
explain that relative weakness of anti-Semitism in England?
For instance, how was this related to the basic ideas of British
liberalism? And did Jews pose a
threat to English aristocrats or to the middle class or the lower middle class?
Was race and nation linked in Britain as it was in Germany? Did the
British in the mid-1800s have reason to fear alien influences or political
instability? In short—did the
British face the kinds of insecurity over national identity that we have seen in
Germany and Austria? And what did
that have to do with attitudes towards Jews?
Does all this mean
that there was no anti-Semitism in Britain?
When did Jews get legal equality there?
Were racist ideas in
England often applied to Jews? Explain.
How did Jewish
immigration in the late 1800s affect attitudes towards Jews?
What is
Lindemann’s main point about the status of Jews and anti-Semitism in the USA
in this period? And why does he
argue that anti-Black racism probably decreased anti-Semitism in the USA?
How does Lindemann
explain the relative lack of modern anti-Semitism in 19th century
Hungary? In particular, what about
the situation in Hungary differed from that in Austria?
Was there no
“rise” of the Jews in Hungary?
Why was the
Hungarian ruling class relatively accepting of Jews, and what about Hungarian
politics made the Hungarian liberals particularly accepting of Jews?
How did mass
immigration of Jews from the “east” influence attitudes of and toward Jews
in Hungary in the late 1800s?
What is
Lindemann’s main point about the anti-Semitic views of G. Istoczy?
And was there much evidence of popular anti-Semitism in Hungary at this
time?
On
page 271-272, Lindemann sums up his main point in Part Two of this book—what
are his 4 main points?
Introduction
to Part Three
To
what does the term Belle Epoque refer and why?
According
to Lindemann, how did relations between Jews and Gentiles change in this period,
and what paradox does he see in this?
What
big changes in the economy, politics, and ideas does Lindemann think contributed
to the re-shaping of attitudes regarding Jews?
Does
Lindemann think that Liberalism “died” in this era, or that Jews concluded
that Jewish-Gentile relations were hopeless?
Chapter
9
Does
Lindemann think that popular anti-Semitism in late 19th century
Russia was based upon “fantasy”? Explain.
Why
did Russian nationalists fear the rise of the Jews?
Lindemann
claims that Russian lower class culture was exceptionally violent and that this
applied to relations among Jews and between Jews and Gentiles.
How does he support this argument?
What
is Lindemann’s point about the role of Jews in Russian business and in
political movements?
Does
he blame Jewish poverty in Russia on the government or on anti-Semitism?
Explain.
What
does Lindemann mean when he says that there was an “underground war” between
the government and Jews in Russia in 1880-1914?
Why
does Lindemann call the May Laws an abject failure?
How
does Lindemann explain the causes of the 1903 pogrom in Kishinev?
And how does he explain the differences in interpretations of the pogrom,
both at the time and on the part of later historians?
Why
does he think the government failed to prevent the Kishinev pogrom from
spreading? Does he think the
government wanted a pogrom?
How
did Jewish activists in Russia respond to the Kishinev pogrom?
How did Jews outside Russia respond, and how did this supposedly effect
Jewish-Gentile relations in Russia?
What
is Lindemann’s main point about the Union of Russian People and the political
anti-Semitic movement in Russia?
What
did Nicholas II think of Jews? On
whom did he blame the Russo-Japanese war? The
1905 Revolution? Russia’s
diplomatic problems?
Does
Lindemann consider any of Nicholas’ paranoia to be “understandable”?
What
does Lindemann have to say here about the explosion of Jewish political activity
in the 1905 Revolution, or about the wave of pogroms that broke out across
Russia in 1905-1906? (This is a
sort of trick question...)
Does
Lindemann think that political anti-Semitism and government anti-Semitism were
increasing in Russia after 1906?
What
is Lindemann’s main point regarding the Bellis Affair?
Lindemann
points out that Romanian anti-Semitism has been described as :the worst in
Europe”—how does he explain the basis of these wide-spread anti-Jewish
hatreds?
Again,
Lindemann makes an argument about the relationship between anti-Semitism and an
“insecure” national identity—how does this apply to Romania?
Lindemann
claims that the “activities and behavior” of Jews in Romania were a major
cause of anti-Semitism there—what evidence does he provide?
Why
were Romanian liberals opposed to Jewish civil equality, and why were they the
source of anti-Jewish policies?
What
seems to be Lindemann’s main point in this chapter?
Chapter
10
Lindemann says that Zionism "corroborated" the charges of the anti-Semites; what does he mean, and what is his evidence?
Was Zionism as single, "homogeneous" ideology? Did all Jews agree with Zionist views?
What does Lindemann consider to be the root causes of Zionism? What does he have to say about the views of Moses Hess and Leon Pinsker, and how these views related to those of Theodore Hertzl?
What is Lindemann's general view of Herzl? Does he consider Herzl to have been particularly philo-Semitic? Explain.
Did Herzl consider anti-Semitism a problem that could be "fixed"? How? Explain.
According to Lindemann, when and why did Herzl turn toward Zionism, and were his views accepted by all Zionists? Explain.
Explain the meaning of the Wolf quotation on p. 330 and why Lindemann included this quotation.
Does Lindemann think that most Jews in Germany considered efforts to resolve Jewish-Gentile differences hopeless in the late 1800s? Explain.
Does Lindemann agree that the Wilhelm period was a "dormant" period for German anti-Semitism? Or that anti-Semitism was "seething" but not political (that it was "spiritual"--part of volkish tribalism? Explain.
What is Lindemann's main point about German anti-Semitism in the period of the Tivoli Platform of 1892?
How did Austrian popular anti-Semitism differ from that in Germany at this time?
What is Lindemann's explanation of why Karl Lueger was so popular, and what is his main point about Lueger's anti-Semitism? Does he consider it just to describe Lueger as a pre-cursor to Hitler? Explain. (And what does he mean when he calls anti-Semitism an "integrating ideology"?)
What is Lindemann's main point about the ideas of Langbehen? Legarde? Chamberlin? Does he see any of these men as "fathers of Nazism"? Explain.
What is the main point of this chapter?
Chapter 11
Why does Lindemann see the state of Jewish-Gentile relations in England and the US in this period as "ambiguous"?
How does he explain the causes of tensions between Jews and Gentiles in Edwardian Britain? How were they linked to the emergence of British "self-doubt"? To changes in England's relationship with Russia? To growing criticisms of British liberalism? And in particular, to the Boer War?
Did the British Left reject claims that Jews caused the Boer War? In general, what is Lindemann's point about the views of leftists like Hobson and B. P. Webb regarding Jews?
How and why did "native" Jews respond to mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to England in this period? What is Lindemann's point here?
And what is his point about the Aliens Bill (and the role of Balfour and Churchill)? The Conservative response to the efforts of Lucien Wolf?
What is Lindemann's main point about the response in the USA to the rise of the Jews and to mass Jewish immigration at the turn of the century? Does he think that the USA was free of anti-Semitism? Explain.
How does he explain the Leo Frank case, and what is his main point about the case?
What is the main point (or, what are the main points) of Part Three of this book?