The Logic of Hatred: From Witch Hunts to the Terror

The Logic of Hatred explores the origins of the witch-hunts in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, analyzing the techniques instigators used to designate and annihilate their targets. It reveals how popular uprisings can be transformed and captured by persecutory politics, shedding light on conspiracy theory and the terror apparatuses of our time.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 06 February 2024
Publisher: Fordham University Press

This book delves into the intricate realm of hatred, seeking to unravel its underlying logic and comprehend the profound ways in which it has manifested itself throughout history through persecution and terror apparatuses. Far beyond a mere historical genealogy of persecution, The Logic of Hatred unveils the invaluable contributions phenomenology can make to our understanding of the past. Focusing on the witch-hunts that took place during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, the first part of the book delves into the techniques employed by those instigating these hunts. These techniques include the relentless search for diabolical stigma, the coercive extraction of confessions through torture, the construction of an all-encompassing Enemy through the suggestion of conspiracy, the portrayal of a world turned upside down, or the embodiment of Satan.

Through meticulous analysis, Rogozinski identifies one of the root causes of the witch-hunt in the anguish that popular uprisings evoke within dominant classes. The second part of the book expands the investigation to related phenomena, such as the extermination of lepers in the Middle Ages and the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. By closely studying these historical experiences and discerning their distinct differences and similarities, this book illuminates the transition from exclusion to persecution and the ways in which the revolts of the oppressed can be co-opted and manipulated by persecutory politics. The comprehensive analyses presented herein shed valuable light on conspiracy theory and the contemporary terror apparatuses that shape our world.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531505363