Interesting read for understanding the attitude at the time about the Jews.

Devious race...

I read this book because I have been a fan of Hilaire Belloc for many years and wanted to read for myself if he was as anti-Semitic as commented upon. Given where and when he lived (this was published in 1920s Great Britain) I assumed that he would naturally seem so to the modern reader but that he probably wasn't. Yeah, I was wrong. I was little bit right in that he wished no harm to Jewish people and when the Nazis were arresting and killing Jews he was vocal in his opposition to it. But the way he talks about "the Jew" is as though he believed that Jewish people are so "other" that they are practically a different species. That he thought Jews and Gentiles should try to live together amicably is because he was probably a good man who tried to live out his Catholic faith but it also seems to have blinded him to how bizarre and baseless his views were and on how taken to their logical conclusion could lead to the very violence he despised. But even if they didn't lead to violence, his views are wrong in a grotesque way. He truly believed that Jewish people could not really belong to the nation in which they were born and raised, that they could easily commit treason because they feel no sense of patriotism, but that it is okay because it isn't really their country, even if they were born there. There is much more like it, but a review is not the place for going through a book line by line.

I recommend this book if you are interested in reading about how otherwise decent and intelligent people believed prior to World War II. It also may be helpful if you know very conservative Catholics. A lot of times they say things that sound anti-Semitic and it doesn't seem like it would match with their faith in other regards. Reading this has helped me understand what I had trouble reconciling before. I still think it is antithetical to their purported faith, but I get it now. So there was some value to reading this book, but it was difficult and unpleasant to read.

I like the way he writes - logically - but do not agree with everything, including some of his a priori.

Very interesting read. Anyone who says this is racist is off their rocker. He dedicates the book to a Jewish friend of his, and it’s very clear that he is pointing out cultural differences that create tension. Seems too be much less applicable today than it was at then, but it is very interesting. He basically predicts the Holocaust too.

So boring but so educational

Hilaire Belloc was a first rate historian. Thus one should read him as such. Not to take his analysis at face value but to consider his arguments and think about them even if you are tempted to do so here and there.
This book, written in 1922, is very useful regarding the importance of the role the Jews played in Bolshevism. They were ones pulling the shots and, according do Belloc, there is no surprise there. Hatred and search for reparations against tsarism explains why was so.
Writing when Zionism had already accomplished much (Balfour Declaration, minorities' defenders as a partner at Versailles Treaty, significant immigration to Palestine,... )
Belloc discusses the problems then ahead for the Jewish state calling for a Jewish army to defend the state to be without a third state Protectorado. His discussion - a dispassionate but simpathetic - is predicated on the clear historic assumption of a Jewish Question which permeates the last 2000 years.

Amazing how this book was published in 1922. Belloc had predicted many things that later actually happened, many of which are still relevant today (which is very sad and reminds us of the world we live in, unfortunately). The accusation of Belloc being "anti-Semitic," is unfounded. His writing addresses a perceived real issue without promoting violence against Jews.
This book should be read in school, but obviously it will never happen.

Highly recommended.