Elegant and precise... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service [...] not only to historians'

Edward Peters

In this remarkable book, the development of a way of thinking is traced with scholarly rigour

The Times

A truly monumental book. Dark as its subject may be, it is full of delights... This is a book that will – and should – stop you in your tracks'

Sunday Times

Hugely impressive and brilliantly argued scholarly work... Nirenberg asks tough questions about our intellectual roots'

Irish Mail on Sunday

This richly fascinating "history of a way of thinking" takes us to some unexpected places. The Merchant of Venice is here of course, but such ingrained prejudice even crops up in a diet book of 1599. Sadly for modern enlightenment, Nirenberg ends by contemplating "the future's dangers"

The Independent