. with dustjacket, 1952 1st edition, clean copy

This is an excellent philosophical discussion concerning the evil of anti-Semitism, including the deployment of that word in 19th century Germany to render more palatable the vile hatred of the Jewish people, what some would can mankind's oldest hatred. Lest readers doubt, the term concerned hatred solely of the Jewish people --- no others.

The Christian author Dagobert D. Runes, largely concludes that hatred of the Jewish people abounds especially in those jealous of divine attention historically perceived for the Jewish people.

As Runes wisely concludes, however, man cannot tie himself "to the Lord with rituals and obeisances. Not a thousand rosaries could entwine the hardened soul to the heavens," nor could "all the genuflecting of the bigot... brighten the darkness of a callous mind before the Lord." "...love to man and love to God and love of God to man are but three links of one chain," what the Jewish philosopher Spinoza called "amor dei intellectuallis --- the spiritual love of God."

The devil "is quite educated," the author also observes, and in a comment equally applicable today, notes that "in universities he is considerably in the vogue." For there, the devil is trapped in little things, and his voice virtually screams, calling upon the animal instinct, whereas "the voice of the Lord is a mere whisper."

This book in many respects is a reflection of the immediate post World-War II period in the U.S., where racism remained flagrant, and exclusion based on race and religion was common.

However it is equally valid today, in speaking for example of "man's submission, voluntary submission, to tyranny," and of the many causes of that malady of the human condition, including "the political infantilism of man," which appeared resurgent in recent U.S. elections, during which the people were offered "change" with no meaningful definition of what change actually meant, and the press unquestioningly sang the praises of this not-great, and not-new promise --- one that has heralded tyranny throughout history, very much like the promise of something in exchange for nothing, in other words, something too good to be true.

In part, he writes, it's due to the psychological motivation from weak pseudo-religious education making adults "yearn for the protective cage of living by obedience" rather than our God-given freedom of choice, but also in part due to the mental terror inflicted upon whole populations by instilling fear and panic of the unknown.

Fear, being "the twin sister of cowardice," can all too readily stamp out even a trace of freedom when men allow themselves to be dumbed down, whipped into blubber balls, and accept slavery, be it of the mind, of the body, or of the body politic (as in enthusiasm for such "ridiculous tokens of political self-deception as voting in a one-ticket election").

Fortunately, over the summer of 2009, Americans once again demonstrated that people in a true democracy "drive the tyrants off the platforms from which they harangue, befuddle, and spellbind..."

Very likely, the author would have recognized increasing global and U.S. anti-Zionism as the 21st century mutation of anti-Semitism, that mendacious disease of hatred that Germans so carefully defined with a "palatable" term. And he would also likely deride the current cult of the famous and the deceptiveness with which a certain modern figure has obtained that "bitter fruit on a thorny mountain bush."

He quotes from Rabbi Hillel, "A name made great is a name destroyed."

And from Rabbi Simeon, the son of Gamaliel, that the world rests on three things alone -- "truth, peace, and justice," a formula served not at all by the cult of personality or by such personal greed for fame and greatness as abounds in current-day higher U.S. political echelons.

Not only can one serve neither good nor God by seeking fame, Runes concludes, but those worrying as to "what their public will think have only belated concern" as to truth, peace and justice --- that is to say, no genuine concern at all.