Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-mktnf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-03T08:16:41.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The limits of liberalism: Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Bryan Cheyette
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
Get access

Summary

[T]here is no such thing as a Catholic ‘aspect’ of European history. There is a Protestant aspect, a Jewish aspect, a Mohammedan aspect, a Japanese aspect, and so forth. For all of these look on Europe from without. The Catholic sees Europe from within. There is no more a Catholic ‘aspect’ of European history than there is a man's ‘aspect’ of himself.

Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith (London, 1920), p. 3

There is an attitude for which my friends and I were for a long period rebuked and even reviled; and of which at the present period we are less likely than ever to repent. It was always called Anti-Semitism; but it was always much more true to call it Zionism. … [M]y friends and I had in some general sense a policy in the matter; and it was in substance the desire to give Jews the dignity and status of a separate nation. We desired that in some fashion, and so far as possible, Jews should be represented by Jews, should live in a society of Jews, should be judged by Jews and ruled by Jews. I am an Anti-Semite if that is Anti-Semitism. It would seem more rational to call it Semitism.

G. K. Chesterton, The New Jerusalem (London, 1920), pp. 264–5

INTRODUCTION

The fiction and social criticism of Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton can be said to accentuate many of the contradictions and ambivalences within Edwardian liberalism.

Type
Chapter
Information
Constructions of 'the Jew' in English Literature and Society
Racial Representations, 1875–1945
, pp. 150 - 205
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×