Description: In the wake of the Holocaust, Austrians, Germans, and others often turned to a figural Antisemite to come to terms with their altered political, economic, and cultural circumstances and to shape new national and moral self-understandings. This spectral figure of the Antisemite came into being after Nazi atrocities made explicit expressions of antisemitism socially taboo in Europe and the United States. As The Postwar Antisemite explains, the damaging effects of the figural Antisemite, set in motion in Central Europe immediately after the Second World War, spread far beyond Europe's borders and continue to this day.
Review Quotes: "The Postwar Antisemite makes a significant contribution to the study of post-1945 hostility toward Jews by demonstrating how repudiation itself functioned as a cultural mechanism through which antisemitism endured. By focusing on representation, moral authority, and public negotiation rather than everyday social interaction, Silverman shows how antisemitism was repeatedly narrowed to questions of intention and individual behavior even as the conditions that sustained inequality remained largely unexamined. The book's central insight is thus not merely historical but analytical: identifying antisemites is not the same as dismantling the cultural logics that allow antisemitism to persist. In a moment of renewed hostility, that distinction remains crucial." -- Carlos Haag, Holocaust Studies
"Through careful, lucid, and perspicacious prose, Silverman's new monograph offers a rich cultural readings of the postwar evolution of antisemitism." --Frances Tanzer, Austrian History Yearbook