Protean Prejudice : Anti-Semitism in England's Age of Reason

This work provides new insights into England's many prejudices during a period of supposed enlightenment, and raises questions about the very nature of prejudice in a multiethnic and multicultural society.

This book argues that prejudice during England''s Age of Reason was not diminished, only diffused. In spite of scientific advances, the religious teachings of the past were still real factors in the attitudes of the time. Using original source materials previously overlooked or ignored by many historians of the period, the author finds hostility towards both Jews and Judaism still prominently present among those in the forefront of the Enlightenment. The absence of serious overt anti-Semitism during England''s Age of Reason had little to do with the growing secularism and the ''enlightened'' spirit of the times. In order to understand the persistent but relatively contained anti-Semitism during England''s age of reason it must be put into the context of the protean prejudices found in the society at large. The growing presence of various religious, ethnic, racial, and national ''others'' served to deflect the focus of prejudicial hatred against Jews, thus preventing the translation of deeply ingrained hatred of Jews into violent acts of anti-Semitism.