Before becoming Labour leader he called 1902 book containing antisemitic tropes ‘brilliant’
Jewish leaders have written to Jeremy Corbyn to express “grave concern” and demand an explanation after it emerged he wrote a glowing foreword for a century-old political tract that includes antisemitic tropes.
The book, Imperialism: A Study, written by John Atkinson Hobson in 1902, claimed European finance was controlled by “men of a single and particular race”. Corbyn described the book as “brilliant” and “very controversial”, the Times first reported.
Related: Jeremy Corbyn is either blind to antisemitism – or he just doesn’t care | Jonathan Freedland
It wld be reductive to categorise JA Hobson as only an anti-Semitic thinker. Like too many on the Left, he did make a racist & ugly alignment of ‘Jewish finance’ with imperialism. But he was also an important figure, worthy of study, within the 20th century liberal tradition.
Continue reading...
0 comments:
Post a Comment