Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History (review)

Book Reviews 105 Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History, edited by John K. Klier and Shlomo Lambroza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 393 pp. n.p.1. This impressive collection of essays originated from an academic conference devoted to reexamining and reassessing the anti-Jewish violence that periodically swept over late tsarist Russia and continued on into the revolutionary period. The participants set out to measure the accepted explanations for these pogroms-that government authorities actively planned, encouraged, or at least welcomed them as means to either make Jews the scapegoats for revolutionary violence, or to channel anti-regime protest in a less harmful direction. At the same time, the assembled scholars wished to utilize new historical approaches to examine the pogroms in such broader terms as the role of violence in modern Russian society, the structure and functioning of the Tsarist empire as a multi-ethnic entity, and the extent and nature ofethnoreligious stereotypes and prejudices that resulted thereof. Drawing upon recent studies of such key Russian institutions as the army and police, as well as an abundance of both primary and secondary source material, the authors succeeded admirably in fulfilling their stated goals. The ten essays divide into several distinct categories. After superb introductory pieces byJohn Klier, the first offers a factual recounting ofthe three chronological pogrom waves of 1881-1884 (Michael Aronson, Moshe Mishkinsky), 1903-1905 (Shlomo Lambroza, Robert Weinberg), and 19191921 (Peter Kenez). In addition to describing the anti-Jewish violence in detail, all authors analyze its origins and course in terms of the overall conference objectives. The second category assesses the impact of an increasingly hostile atmosphere upon the Jewish community and the latter's response (Erich Haberer, Alexander Orbach), with a special chapter devoted to pogroms in the Russian zone of Poland. Finally, Hans Rogger provides a concluding chapter that sums up the findings of the various authors that, indeed, far from fostering anti-Jewish violence, the central authorities consistently tried to prevent these outbursts, although they often encountered resistance from local officials. Additionally, Rogger expands the scope of this study by comparing the Russian pogroms with both similar disturbances in Western and Central Europe and anti-black violence in the United States during the same period. 106 SHOFAR Spring 1993 Vol. 11, No.3 Thanks to consistently tight editing, this book avoids the stylistic inconsistencies and variations in scholarly quality that tend to plague similar compendia. Maps and photographs are distributed throughout the work to complement the print material, and an excellent bibliographical essay by Avraham Greenbaum further enhances it. This book will prove invaluable not only to students of Russian, Polish, and Jewish history, but also to scholars of other disciplines focusing on mass movements, modern antisemitism, and ethnic group relations. Edward D. Wynot, Jr.. Department of History Florida State University From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, by Bruce F. Pauley. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 426 pp. $49.95. In constructing this detailed survey, Bruce Pauley took on a task that, however depressing, cried out to be done, and he did so with a sense of mission. This is a scholarly work, but the author's heart is involved as well. Setting out both to inform and instruct, Pauley has produced a valuable book. The book rests on the premise that people need to know the past as it was, not as they might wish to have or excuse it. To that end, Pauley provides solid reportage and helpful explanation, not philosophical or psychological conjecture. He studiously surveys theoretical, political, and physical expressions of antisemitism in modern Austria and emphasizes the extent to which most of Austria's antisemites indulged in wild exaggeration , abstract generalization, and inconsistency, to say nothing of slander and meanness-all ofwhich helped, however unwittingly, to lay the foundation for the Holocaust. He also demonstrates, as have others, that the fanatical racism that marked the Third Reich and led to the Holocaust was more deeply rooted and virulent in Austria than in Germany. Although Pauley treats primarily the period between the two world wars, he paints a wider picture than that. He gives a general overview of traditional...