"No one can say anything sensible about undocumented artworks without connoisseurship. This practice relies exclusively on judgments based on comparisons informed by feats of visual memory. But those judgments follow rules that do not necessarily capture actuality. It has taken an historian of Peter Burke’s acuity to analyze the development of a form of attention–connoisseurship that relies on questionable rules unacknowledged by those who follow them. Burke’s tour d’horizon is a tour de force." - Ivan Gaskell, Bard Graduate Center"A mesmerizing philosophical tour of insects, humans, and transformation." - Mark W. Moffett, author of Adventures Among Ants and The Human Swarm"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London"No one can say anything sensible about undocumented artworks without connoisseurship. This practice relies exclusively on judgments based on comparisons informed by feats of visual memory. But those judgments follow rules that do not necessarily capture actuality. It has taken an historian of Peter Burke’s acuity to analyze the development of a form of attention–connoisseurship that relies on questionable rules unacknowledged by those who follow them. Burke’s tour d’horizon is a tour de force." - Ivan Gaskell, Bard Graduate Center"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London"it brings us to looking at medieval manuscripts more and more closely, peering with pleasure into the borders of bunnies and monkeys, whether we seek deliberate smut or idle whimsy, it makes Image on the Edge well worth reading. It is an entirely diverting and unusual book." - The Art Newspaper "it brings us to looking at medieval manuscripts more and more closely, peering with pleasure into the borders of bunnies and monkeys, whether we seek deliberate smut or idle whimsy, it makes Image on the Edge well worth reading. It is an entirely diverting and unusual book." - The Art Newspaper "a handsome, entertaining account of the peculiar fashion for grotesque, obscene and humorous presences on the margins of medieval illuminateed manuscripts." - Times Higher Education"If the study of medieval art is not to remain an esoteric and elitist discipline then more books like this must be written." - Burlington Magazine"a handsome, entertaining account of the peculiar fashion for grotesque, obscene and humorous presences on the margins of medieval illuminateed manuscripts." - Times Higher Education"a handsome, entertaining account of the peculiar fashion for grotesque, obscene and humorous presences on the margins of medieval illuminateed manuscripts." - Times Higher Education"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina"Boria Sax’s The Butterfly Who Dreamt He Was a Man brilliantly weaves together all the threads that tie us to the natural world. He finds literary and literal connections that will make you rethink our relationship to insects throughout history, their magnificence and the vital role they continue to play, keeping our planet on its axis." - Peter Kuper, author of Insectopolis"Peter Burke sheds light on one of the most enigmatic and captivating aspects of the history of art." - Paolo Coen, University of Teramo"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina"Peter Burke sheds light on one of the most enigmatic and captivating aspects of the history of art." - Paolo Coen, University of Teramo"Antisemitisms: A History of Jew Hating is the fruit of decades of profound learning. Divided into five evocative parts – Making, Seeing, Healing, Wandering and Unmaking of Jews – Sander L. Gilman reveals the vast, unstable and inconsistent entanglements of Jewish history and antisemitism. Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of examples from politics, art, science and culture, his work weaves together non-Jews, Jews and representations of Jews. Gilman introduces two groundbreaking claims that will transform the field: the use of “antisemitisms”, in the plural, and the development of the “wobbly” as a core category for understanding the phenomenon. This is, quite simply, Gilman’s definitive statement on the subject." - Amos Morris-Reich, The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History and Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University"The Butterfly Who Dreamt He Was a Man takes us on a delightful journey of metamorphoses through a wide range of insect bodies as well as thought systems. Richly illustrated with stories from across time and space, the book shows how insects have been fundamental to the literary imagination. It also reveals some of the surprising ways in which human identities have been created through comparisons made between humans and insects. This beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking book transforms the way we see insects – and ourselves." - Kaori Nagai, University of Kent, author of Imperial Beast Fables"This magisterial history of social connoisseurship by a leading cultural historian covers the field in the last 500 years. Following the codification of the methodology in the 17th and then in the 18th century Peter Burke presents a rich insight and critical assessment of the achievement, as well as the limitations, of the methodology in the development of modern art history over the last 200 years." - Jean Michel Massing, King's College, Cambridge"This magisterial history of social connoisseurship by a leading cultural historian covers the field in the last 500 years. Following the codification of the methodology in the 17th and then in the 18th century Peter Burke presents a rich insight and critical assessment of the achievement, as well as the limitations, of the methodology in the development of modern art history over the last 200 years." - Jean Michel Massing, King's College, Cambridge"Antisemitisms: A History of Jew Hating is the fruit of decades of profound learning. Divided into five evocative parts – Making, Seeing, Healing, Wandering and Unmaking of Jews – Sander L. Gilman reveals the vast, unstable and inconsistent entanglements of Jewish history and antisemitism. Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of examples from politics, art, science and culture, his work weaves together non-Jews, Jews and representations of Jews. Gilman introduces two groundbreaking claims that will transform the field: the use of “antisemitisms”, in the plural, and the development of the “wobbly” as a core category for understanding the phenomenon. This is, quite simply, Gilman’s definitive statement on the subject." - Amos Morris-Reich, The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History and Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University"If the study of medieval art is not to remain an esoteric and elitist descipline then more books like this must be written." - Burlington Magazine"If the study of medieval art is not to remain an esoteric and elitist descipline then more books like this must be written." - Burlington Magazine"Camille’s polymathic essays undoubtedly will provoke such studies and will expand the field of questions we ask . . . and in this he will have made a valuable contribution." - Oxford Art Journal"Image on the Edge remains an important and highly readable exploration of an intriguing corner of medieval culture with the power to open up a whole society and its mental worlds to modern readers in an exhilarating, thought-provoking, and original fashion." - Folklore"Camilles polymathic essays undoubtedly will provoke such studies and will expand the field of questions we ask . . . and in this he will have made a valuable contribution." - Oxford Art Journal"Camilles polymathic essays undoubtedly will provoke such studies and will expand the field of questions we ask . . . and in this he will have made a valuable contribution." - Oxford Art Journal"Boria Sax’s gentle, attentive prose is informed as much by philosophy as cultural history. His latest book takes the reader flying and fluttering through a realm of thought in which apparently fixed categories of form – such as human and insect – dissolve and rearrange themselves in a kind of eternally active interplay suggestive of what we might call, not merely “metamorphosis,” but the process of cosmic being itself. Clarifying, provocative and inherently pleasurable, this is an exemplary contribution to contemporary animal studies sure to inspire scholars and general readers for years to come." - Adam Dodd, The University of Queensland, author of Beetle"This is an interesting book that will make the reader examine manuscripts and sculpture more carefully and understand the Middle Ages more comprehensively . . . It is a book that will broaden your idea of medieval art in an enjoyable way." - Yorkshire Gazette and Herald
