Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology

Marcel Stoetzler

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780803266711
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Jewish Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Modern antisemitism and the modern discipline of sociology not only emerged in the same period, but—antagonism and hostility between the two discourses notwithstanding—also overlapped and complemented each other. Sociology emerged in a society where modernization was often perceived as destroying unity and "social cohesion." Antisemitism was likewise a response to the modern age, offering in its vilifications of "the Jew" an explanation of society's deficiencies and crises. Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology is a collection of essays providing a comparative analysis of modern antisemitism and the rise of sociology. This volume addresses three key areas: the strong influence of writers of Jewish background and the rising tide of antisemitism on the formation of sociology; the role of antisemitism in the historical development of sociology through its treatment by leading figures in the field, such as Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Theodor W. Adorno; and the discipline's development in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. Together the essays provide a fresh perspective on the history of sociology and the role that antisemitism, Jews, fascism, and the Holocaust played in shaping modern social theory.
Contributors: Y. Michal Bodemann, Werner Bonefeld, Detlev Claussen, Robert Fine, Chad Alan Goldberg, Irmela Gorges, Jonathan Judaken, Richard H. King, Daniel Lvovich, Amos Morris-Reich, Roland Robertson, Marcel Stoetzler, and Eva-Maria Ziege.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1. The Antisemitic Contexts of Sociology’s Emergence
• 1. Durkheim’s Sociology and French Antisemitism
• 2. Sociology’s Case for a Well-Tempered Modernity
• 3. Fairness as an Impetus for Objective, Scientific Social Research Methods
• 4. Coldly Admiring the Jews
• Part 2. Sociology’s Reaction to Antisemitism
• 5. Rereading Marx on the “Jewish Question”
• 6. From Assimilationist Antiracism to Zionist Anti-antisemitism
• 7. The Rise of Sociology, Antisemitism, and the Jewish Question
• 8. Civilization(s), Ethnoracism, Antisemitism, Sociology
• Part 3. The Reformulation of Sociology in the Face of Fascist Antisemitism
• 9. Talcott Parsons’s “The Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism”
• 10. The Irrationality of the Rational
• 11. Gino Germani, Argentine Sociology, and the Study of Antisemitism
• 12. Antisemitism and the Power of Abstraction
• Conclusion
• Contributors
• Index
• About the Editor