History 201-206 seminars are open to history majors only during pre-registration. If the course does not reach its enrollment maximum, it will be open to all students beginning with drop/add on a first-come first-serve basis.
HIST 202 European Anti-Semitism
Weber
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
SEM
This course explores anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism in Europe from the age of the French revolution to the present. At the core of the course is the question of how prejudice against Jews (and since 1948 also against Israel ) has been tied to the fate of Liberalism in European. The first half of the course examines the development of anti-Semitism until the Holocaust. We will, however, try to avoid applying a teleological approach to the period of 1789 to 1941 that reduces the history of gentile attitudes towards Jews to a pre-history of the Holocaust. The second half of the course examines attitudes towards Jews since 1945 in a Europe without a sizeable Jewish community. The course finishes by looking at the ‘New Anti-Semitism.' It asks if the concept of the ‘New Anti-Semitism' really adds up or if present European attitudes towards Israel are better explained in terms of a feeling of European post-colonial Liberal ‘guilt.'
Course Syllabus (PDF)
