Everyday Hate’s clarity and engaging style make it an invaluable introduction to antisemitism; however, it also has plenty to offer readers who already possess a more confident grasp of the topic. The very precise full title – in particular, that phrase ‘built into’ – indicates a key strength of the book. Dave Rich doesn’t simply define and analyse the tropes of antisemitism, he illuminates the subtle and complex mechanisms which sustain it: the factors behind its potency and longevity, the insidious ways in which it draws people in unwittingly, its capacity to re-erupt after a period of apparent dormancy, and of course its adaptability, its power to mutate and evolve as the world changes.

The preface opens with a powerful reminder as to just why antisemitism matters, offering a catalogue of examples of antisemitic abuse and rhetoric from just one seven-day period, moving from events in the UK to the international stage (xi-xiv). Striking individual examples are reinforced by clear statistics and sharp analysis. As well as demonstrating the sheer scale and significance of the problem, the case studies accumulate in a way which highlights recurring, centuries-old motifs within antisemitism – such as the urge to scapegoat, and accusations of dual loyalty. The drive to find fault with Jews, and blame them for local or global ills, is mirrored in the perhaps still more bizarre impulse to designate any enemies as Jews, in defiance of logic or evidence. This is just one of the book’s powerful and distinctive running themes. It’s not the most obvious feature of antisemitism, but it unites ISIS labelling moderate Muslims ‘Jews’ (xiii), Edmund Burke blaming the French Revolution on ‘Jew brokers’ (31) and the casual use of slurs such as ‘to Jew down’ (2). As Rich observes: ‘You don’t need a Jew in the conversation for the “Jew” insult to be deployed. Engrained within our own language is the assumption that being thought of as a Jew is something for everyone else to avoid.’ (3)

Dave Rich reaches out to readers with a limited knowledge of antisemitism. Although himself an expert in the field, he understands that, for many, its tropes are unfamiliar and puzzling. As he dryly notes after tracing the origins of the ‘blood libel’: ‘who remembers this history now? Jews and antisemites, mainly.’ (xix) Addressing the reader directly, he observes how easy it is for even well-meaning people to be drawn into antisemitic patterns of thought. This is a crucial point. It is understandable that someone might feel angry or defensive if accused of antisemitism. Rich invites such people not to beat themselves up, but to reflect and learn more: ‘If, when reading this book, you recognise things within yourself or people you know, don’t be too alarmed. It means it’s working.’ (xx) Rich goes on to explain in more detail precisely how and why people can be led astray, become carriers of the virus. Conspiratorial patterns of thought can all too easily become enmeshed in antisemitism even when that is not the original intended target (xxv-vi). Someone who doesn’t know the Rothschilds are Jewish can be the unwitting conduit of a meme from an antisemitic source which can then be picked up and amplified by antisemites (27). Those who might consider themselves philosemites can become vectors for antisemitic tropes when they express admiration for a Jewish stereotype such as the ability to make money (33-4). ‘Antisemitism has a fluid quality, filling whatever space is opened to it, permeating the cracks in society and widening them further.’ (xxviii) This is one of the many vivid and expressive metaphors which Rich deploys to impress the book’s complex arguments on the reader’s mind.

Although many of the examples invoked are extremely topical, connections are repeatedly drawn with much earlier manifestations of antisemitism. The reader becomes aware of the complex network of roots from which virulent new shoots continue to spring. Every modern instance of antisemitism has a clear line of ancestry. In Chapter Three, for example, we learn how the Grenfell Tower tragedy immediately prompted some to identify sinister connections with myths of Jewish ritual sacrifice (40). Rich goes on to explain how this particular trope – the blood libel – was revived in the nineteenth century by the myth of the vampire, which ‘draws