Pamela Nadell's Antisemitism, an American Tradition (W.W. Norton, 2025) argues that anti-Jewish hatred in the United States isn't an aberration or foreign import but a persistent, homegrown current running from the colonial era to today.religionnews+1
Nadell traces nearly four centuries of American antisemitism, starting with the first Jewish settlers in 1654 and showing how colonists brought with them not just dreams of liberty but inherited "theology of contempt" rooted in Christian anti-Judaism. Her central thesis is that antisemitism has never steadily declined in America; instead it moves in cycles of ebb and flow tied to economic and social pressures, spiking notably in the 1930s and again in the present moment, which she considers a "high tide" rivaling that earlier peak. She frames the book around lived testimony—drawing on the voices of Jewish men, women, and children—to show how this hatred shaped everyday Jewish life alongside the community's history of advocacy and resistance.religionnews+4
Reviewers consistently praise Nadell's evenhanded, ideologically unbiased approach to identifying antisemitism wherever it appears.
Political nonpartisanship: The Wall Street Journal highlights her "blunt identification of antisemitism irrespective of politics, race or religion," refusing to let either the left or right off the hook.wsj+1
Scope and concision: The Pittsburgh Review of Books calls it "impeccable... both concise and fairly comprehensive," making dense history accessible.pamelanadell
Timeliness and readability: The Jewish Book Council describes it as "well-written and all-too-timely," effectively contextualizing today's antisemitism surge within a long historical arc.jewishbookcouncil
Cross-political findings: The book notes antisemitism now emerges from both ends of the American political spectrum at a rate comparable to the 1930s.ajhs
Critics point to a few notable gaps and, in one case, a sharply dissenting take.
Missing comparative frame: Hadassah Magazine notes Nadell traces antisemitism's Old World origins and international entanglements but never clarifies how the specifically "American" tradition differs from antisemitism's global expression—calling it a "minor quibble" but a real omission.hadassahmagazine
Contested definitional approach: In interviews, Nadell admits she doesn't subscribe to any existing formal definition of antisemitism, instead favoring a loose, case-by-case identification (citing Isaiah Berlin's quip that "an antisemite is someone who hates Jews more than absolutely necessary"), which some may find analytically imprecise.associationforjewishstudies
Israel-related framing as contentious: She argues that delegitimizing, demonizing, or applying double standards to Israel crosses into antisemitism, a stance likely to draw pushback from readers who see this as conflating political criticism with prejudice.associationforjewishstudies
Hostile ideological critique: The Kirk Center review is sharply negative, arguing the book overreaches in labeling American history as fundamentally antisemitic and concluding it is "best left unread"—though this critique comes from a conservative-leaning outlet skeptical of the book's framing rather than a mainstream consensus.kirkcenter
Most major outlets, including the Wall Street Journal (naming it a Best Book of October 2025) and Hadassah Magazine (a Best Book of 2025), received the work favorably as a sobering, well-researched contribution to understanding a resurgent problem. The book's reception splits mainly along how reviewers view its Israel-antisemitism framing and its implicit claim that hostility to Jews is baked into the national fabric rather than an occasional deviation.religionnews+3