Antisemitism and Fantasies of National Purity from Mussolini to the Present

The Benjamin (Yale 1962) and Barbara Zucker Lecture Series
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University

This talk will examine the place of fantasies of national purity in selected authoritarian states from Mussolini to the present, and how racial legislation and propaganda, such as that directed at Jews, factor into this larger context. We will look at the three timeframes and states of mind strongman leaders leverage: utopia, nostalgia, and crisis.

Sponsored by the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism and Whitney Humanities Center
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Poster