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David P. Goldman is a senior editor of First Things.

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T. S. Eliot and the Jews

From the March 2021 Print Edition

There recur in the work of ­T. S. Eliot two obsessions that make one cringe: his Jew-­hatred and his contempt for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first is sometimes excused as a reflection of ambient prejudice, the second as critical crankiness. In fact, these obsessions have a common source. The . . . . Continue Reading »

The Original Nation

From the November 2019 Print Edition

No one views Israel with indifference. As an old joke puts it, a philo-Semite is just an anti-Semite who likes Jews. Bari Weiss quotes this joke (to disparage Donald Trump) without grasping its deeper meaning. Anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism respond to the same thing, namely, God’s promise to the . . . . Continue Reading »

Pagan Horror

From the February 2018 Print Edition

Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reichby eric kurlanderyale, 448 pages, $35 That Hitler and his inner circle were mad is not a matter of controversy. The source and character of their madness, though, is subject to debate. Eric Kurlander wants us to understand Nazi ideology . . . . Continue Reading »

Love With No Future

From the January 2017 Print Edition

The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungby roger scrutonallen lane, 368 pages, $19.99Of all the personalities that produced enduring art, Richard Wagner’s was perhaps the most repulsive. A blackmailer, philanderer, deadbeat, paranoid, and anti-Semite, Wagner invites his . . . . Continue Reading »