The Tsars And The Jews

One of the striking results of this new research is how closely reaction and reform were connected. This ambiguity was already inherent in the Polish attempt at reform during the second half of the eighteenth century, and it never entirely disappeared during the times of dark reaction under Alexander II. Therefore, when the Russian government initiated a programme of modernization at the end of the nineteenth century, anti-Jewish stereotypes quickly hardened into anti-Semitism. In the conflict that ensued between reform-minded and reactionary forces, this anti-Semitism became an ideological weapon in which the Jews appeared as the embodiment of change, modernization and uprooted life. Lowe has taken the opportunity of the English translation to incorporate the results of his most recent research, extending the coverage of the book from the earlier version's beginning in 1890 backwards into the eighteenth century to give the whole background to Tsarist Jewish policy and Russian anti-Semitism.