Antisemitism, an American Tradition by Pamela Nadell, traces the long, often overlooked history of antisemitism in the United States, revealing how this enduring prejudice has shaped Jewish life in America from the 1600s to today.

Jews experienced antisemitism the moment they landed on what would become the United States. When they first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654, Peter Stuyvesant tried but failed to deport them.

As a historian and professor, Pamela S. Nadell tells in Antisemitism, an American Tradition, this was only antisemitism’s beginning on our shores, as negative European stereotypes about Jews were rooted in American soil.

“A strength of Ms. Nadell’s book is her blunt identification of antisemitism irrespective of politics, race or religion. It is unfortunate, and distressing, that she has such a wealth of material to draw on.”
— John G. Turner, The Wall Street Journal

“This is the book that the world needs now, a bracing narrative of dark chapters from America’s past–history which continues to stalk the nation. Nadell writes with command and a detective’s sense for where buried episodes of antisemitism can be found.” ― Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future

Pamela S. Nadell is the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and the Director of Jewish studies at American University. Her other books include America’s Jewish Women and Women Who Would Be Rabbis, a National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Published by: W.W.Norton & Company, Inc.

Published on: October 14, 2025