"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and the Allure of Conspiracy
Zoom presentation
Watch the video HERE
Why has "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" managed to draw such widespread attention with countless reprints and websites in many languages -- across the political spectrum -- foregrounding its message of a mysterious Jewish cabal controlling the world's finances and politics? Professor Zipperstein in conversation with Professors Harriet Murav and Eugene Avrutin will explore the reasons for its extraordinary resilience, this particularly surprising since it is definitively known to have been copied, almost word for word, from a mid-19th century attack on Napoleon III. Few better examples exist on the world stage of the resilience of "fake news."
In preparation for this talk, Professor Zipperstein recommends reading an excerpt from his book Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History. Chapter 5, Sages of Zion, Pavel Krushevan, and the Shadow of Kishinev, available here.
A podcast featuring Professor ZIpperstein about the Protocols is available here.
Steven J. Zipperstein, Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, is the author and editor of nine books. He has taught at universities in Russia, Poland, France, and Israel and for six years at Oxford, and is currently at work on a biography of Philip Roth for Yale's Jewish Lives.
CAS Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures and Comparative and World Literature
