The Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred Year Retrospective on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia around 1905, claimed to be the captured secret protocols from the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 describing a plan by the Jewish people to achieve global domination. While the document has been proven to be fake, much of it plagiarized from satirical anti-Semitic texts, it had a major impact throughout Europe during the first half of the 20th century, particularly in Germany. After World War II, the text was further denounced. Anyone who referred to it as a genuine document was seen as an ignorant hate-monger.
Yet there is abundant evidence that The Protocols is resurfacing in many places. The Paranoid Apocalypse re-examines the text’s popularity, investigating why it has persisted, as well as larger questions about the success of conspiracy theories even in the face of claims that they are blatantly counterfactual and irrational. It considers the medieval pre-history of The Protocols, the conditions of its success in the era of early twentieth-century secular modernity, and its post-Holocaust avatars, from the Muslim world to Walmart and Left-wing anti-American radicalism.
Contributors argue that the key to The Protocols’ longevity is an apocalyptic paranoia that lays the groundwork not only for the myth’s popularity, but for its implementation as a vehicle for genocide and other brutal acts.
1) Introduction (Landes and Katz)
Conceptual Prelude: On Paranoid Politics and Apocalyptic Violence
2) Richard Landes, “The Paranoid Imperative and the Political Logic of the Protocols”
3) Charles Strozier, “The Apocalyptic Other: On Paranoia and Violence”
Medieval Prologue: Cosmic Christian Anxiety and Global Modern Paranoia
4) Jeffrey Woolf, “The Devil’s Hoofs: The Medieval Roots of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”
5) Johannes Heil, Thomas of Monmouth and the ”Protocols of the Sages of Narbonne”
The Early Years: The Apocalyptic Matrix of Genesis and Launch
6) Michael Hagemeister: “The Antichrist as an Imminent Political Possibility”:
Sergei Nilus and the apocalyptical reading of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
7) Jeffrey Mehlman, Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Thoughts on the French Connection
8) Paul Zawadski, “Jewish World Conspiracy” and the Question of Secular Religions
9) David Redles, “The Turning Point: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Eschatological War Between Aryans and Jews”
Post-Holocaust Protocols: Non-Western Variations
10) David Goodman, “The Protocols in Japan”
11) Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: An authentic document in Palestinian Authority ideology”
Protocols at the Turn of the Millennium: The Return of the Repressed
12) Michael Barkun, “Anti-Semitism from Outer Space: The Protocols in the UFO Subculture”
13) Deborah Lipstadt, “The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion on the Contemporary American Scene: Historical Artifact or Current Threat?”
14) Chip Berlet, “Protocols to the Left, Protocols to the Right: Conspiracism in American Political Discourse at the Turn of the Second Millennium
Quo Vadis? How to Respond to the Return of the Protocols
15) Stephen Bronner, “Conspiracy Then and Now: History, Politics, and the Anti-Semitic Imagination”
16) Richard Landes, “Jewish Self-Criticism, Progressive Moral Schadenfreude and the Suicide of Reason: Reflections on the Protocols in the ‘Postmodern’ Era”
Reader's Reports:
“The introduction is indeed a tour de force, full of strong opinions expressed by the authors in a lively and often provocative style that combines the latest in post-postmodern critical thinking with common sense analysis. Some scholarly readers might react with dismay, but I think - and I am sure many readers will agree - that the statements for the most part are not only stimulating but indeed necessary for opening up a new debate on the subject of the "New Antisemitism's" demonization of Israel which is so often discussed in hackneyed and stultifyingly mealy-mouthed terms. The provocations offered here may jolt some overly-complacent readers into actually thinking anew instead of repeating the usual idees reçues. Readers may not in the end agree, but they will have a thrilling intellectual ride… In summary, this is a path-breaking collection that not only advances our historical understanding of the Protocols but is also targeted to provoke political debate. I don't think I've "enjoyed" reading an historical-political work so much since the often wrong-headed and even perverse writings of Hannah Arendt. I recommend most enthusiastically the publication of the work substantially as is.”
