The Return of History

Book excerpt: “For a long time now, the authority of knowledge has been under siege from those who march under the banner of pure belief.” —Simon Schama Welcome to the new JQ. The Return of History investigates rising global populism, and the forces propelling modern nativism and xenophobia. In wide-ranging, lively essays, Simon Schama explores the age-old tropes of Jews as both purveyors of disease and mono-polists of medical wisdom, in the wake of a global pandemic; Holly Case takes us by train to Hungary; Mikołaj Grynberg reflects on Poland’s commitment to forgetting its atrocities; and Deborah Lipstadt puts white supremacy under the microscope, examining its antisemitic DNA. Recently discovered letters about Israel from Isaiah Berlin to Robert Silvers are published here for the first time. In new sections on History and Community, Ian Black revisits a turning point in the Arab–Israeli conflict, and Elliot Perlman traces the roots of the Jewish farmers in Uganda. And in three insightful, erudite book reviews, Hadley Freeman, Benjamin Balint and Robert Manne cast light on second-generation Holocaust memoirs and the work of Paul Celan and Götz Aly. The Return of History is a truly global issue, bringing together esteemed, well-known voices and those you’ll be exhilarated to read for the first time.