The Jews, and the Jews in England

Originally written in 1938 under the pseudonym 'Cobbett,' this book is British philosopher and polyglot Anthony M. Ludovici's most strident political writing. Finished at a time when Nazi Germany was at its peacetime height, Ludovici was still concerned enough about Jewish power in Britain to want this work to appear under another name. Starting with a frank discussion on Jewish racial origins-as far as they were understood, based on phenotype and morphology in those pre-DNA days-Ludovici concludes that the European Jews were of mixed antecedents-Semitic, Orientalid, Asiatic and European, all in differing proportions. From there he discusses the history of the Jews from their earliest interactions with surrounding Gentile nations, focusing particularly upon their troubled relations with the Romans and later Medieval Europe. Ludovici then moves on to his major theme: a detailed history of the Jews in Britain, starting in Roman times, including the reasons for their expulsion in 1290, their return in 1655 under Cromwell, and their powerful influence in British society from that time onward. In this regard Ludovici was of the determined mind that the Jews had, since 1655, become so thoroughly entrenched in British society that it would be well-nigh impossible to expel them once again. 'There is now no appreciable difference between the careers and possible appointments of Jews and Gentiles in Great Britain, and one may say that, except perhaps for the highest ecclesiastical honours, from which the Jews are barred only by their religious convictions, there is no position of influence, responsibility or importance in the land which is closed to a Jew,' he writes. Furthermore, Ludovici says, even if it were possible to expel the Jews from Britain once again, what he called 'Judaic values'-in business, beliefs, customs, and social mores-were also so entrenched in British society that all of these traditions would also have to be expunged.