A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a potent forgery alleging a Jewish plot to run the world, has proved durable since its turn-of-the-century fabrication by Russian police; this book offers welcome background, context and refutation. The main section is the 1926 effort by Segel, a German Jewish journalist, to expose the fraud; he shows how the infamous text was plagiarized from trash fiction, Machiavelli's speeches and a political satire. While Segel describes how the Protocols helped fuel pogroms in Russia and was embraced by automobile magnate Henry Ford, Levy, who teaches history at the University of Illinois, adds much in his comprehensive introduction. Unlike most anti-Semitic works, he notes, this has ``no national context or identity.'' Thus it has served multiple purposes for different audiences; it was not only publicized by the Nazis, but it also remains influential in the Arab world and eastern Europe and among American right-wingers and black nationalists. (Dec.)