Language:
English
Year of publication:
1988
Titel der Quelle:
Patterns of Prejudice
Angaben zur Quelle:
22,3 (1988) 22-35
Keywords:
Wells, H. G.
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Analyzes Wells' writings in the context of his utopian vision of an elitist, science-oriented, anti-democratic, non-Marxian socialism. In Wells' pre-1914 fiction, Jews appear as a stereotype of the negative aspects of capitalism which are corrupting England, and as the antithesis of the rational and scientific modern state. In his plans for world society, Wells adopted the 18th century liberal tradition which viewed Jews as a medieval relic and their "Pharisaic" exclusivity as a cause of antisemitism, and urged them to assimilate. Originally ambivalent towards Zionism, Wells came to oppose it strongly as the embodiment of Jewish particularism, and in the 1930s-40s compared it with Nazism. Even during World War II he continued to blame the persecution of the Jews on their particularism and failure to assimilate, warning that they were likely to face extermination as a result. However, Wells condemned Nazism in general and advocated reforming the Jews by assimilation in his progressive socialist utopia.
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