The Sacred Chain

Reviewed by Dr. William L. Pierce

“ANTI-SEMITES sensed the truth of Jewish history, the specialness of the Jews, their strangeness on the face of the earth. The anti-Semites could not stand to witness all the good things the Jews had brought mankind because that would remind these inferior people of their own underdevelopment and depravity.” (p. 11) These two sentences sum up the 472 pages of Norman Cantor’s book, its hubris and subjectivity. Yes, most everything you’ve heard about the Jews is true, but only a warped, envious, hate-filled person would object to the contributions of God’s Chosen People to the benighted Gentiles. The Sacred Chain is a survey of the history of the Jews from their obscure origins as just one of many Semitic tribes inhabiting the eastern Mediterranean to their unique position of international wealth and power today. Although Cantor is an academic, this is not an academic history, for there are no footnotes citing sources. There are a bibliography and a useful index, however, and the preface suggests that the book would be suitable for an introductory college course. One of the themes of Cantor’s book is that the Jews are indeed a separate race and not just a religious or cultural group. They are a race created, in part, by their religion and modified by their contact with other peoples, but nevertheless a race with their own peculiar mentality, which has endured for many centuries. Another of Cantor’s themes, as can be gleaned from the opening quote, is the “superhuman strength, intelligence, and durability” of the Jews. (p. 11) While the author’s overweening pride of race may be difficult at times for the Gentile reader to stomach, it is itself instructive. More important, this arrogance and presumptuousness result in candor when the author discusses the more negative aspects of Jewish history. A third motif of Jewish history chronicled in the book is the cyclical ups and downs in the fortunes of the race. Gamblers and sp