Publisher's Synopsis
In this exploration of the economic roots of anti-semitism, the author traces the position of Jews in Poland from the end of the 16th century to the demise of the Polish State in 1795. The book explains why Poland was not able to modernize its backward social, economic and political system at a time when Western European countries were rapidly evolving, and shows that Jews were blamed for this failure to modernize, fueling an economic antisemitism that contributed to the Holocaust and is with us still.
