WRITER, RESEARCHER
Ann Farmer
Ann's new book 'Chesterton and the Jews' is now available to buy on Amazon.
Chesterton and the Jews studies the popular author’s relationship with ‘the Jews’, tracing his journey from pro-Semitism, through growing criticism of the ‘financial Jew’, to vociferous opposition to Nazi anti-Semitism. Unlike studies that have viewed him through the lens of the Holocaust, magnifying the trivial aspects of this vital question and minimizing the more important, this portrait explores Chesterton’s strengths and weaknesses in the context of his times and his relationships with Jews and non-Jews. Paradoxically, the weaknesses originated in his strengths – personal loyalties and his sympathy for the poor - thus highlighting the dangers of anti-Semitism even to well-meaning individuals, in the past but also in the present.