Synopsis "Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion: Jews and Nationalism in Hungary"
Anti-Semitism and racism are political and social issues-and they are also moral issues. On the individual, societal, cultural, and state levels, there is a question of the acceptability of hatred in all its various forms, and the expression of it as discrimination, racism, or even murder. How the state and society handle this hatred, how much credibility, desirability, social standing, and righteousness it is afforded, will ultimately determine whether murder, massacre, or genocide are acceptable-or even desired-goals. Vera Ranki's The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion explores these issues using the social history of the Jews in Hungary. Ranki shows how, in less than a hundred years, state policies in Hungary shifted from demanding the assimilation of Jews to institutionalised anti-Semitism. The case of Hungary provides a poignant illustration of the changing politics of nationalism, the failures of inclusion policies, and the role of the political ethos in the process of institutionalising exclusion. This is essential reading for anyone interested in Jewish and East-Central European history, the Holocaust, and European nationalism.
