July 1, 2023
Trekking through the maze of accusations surrounding the Rothschild dynasty. Journalist Rothschild, a conspiracy theory expert and author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, is not related to the famous Rothschild family, but he readily admits that the name is one of the most recognizable in the world. Synonymous with untold riches, luxurious indulgence, and shadowy power, the Rothschild family has been accused of almost everything, from manipulating wars for profit to controlling the weather and even starting the California wildfires with an orbiting solar generator (hence the book's title). Much of the ire is rooted in antisemitic tropes, and the author carefully unpacks the connections. The dynasty began in the mid-16th century, when Isak Rothschild scrambled out of the Frankfurt ghetto and established himself as a banker. The myth really took off when the family became financier to various European governments, cementing the idea of commercial acumen turning into political influence. The conspiracy theories evolved, with proponents endlessly quoting each other and connecting bits of "evidence" to concoct lurid tableaux of power wielded in secret. The notion that the family "owns" the U.S. Federal Reserve is particularly outlandish, illustrating how contrary evidence can be folded into the conspiracy. "Whenever Western pop culture needs a wealthy and secretive family to be running some kind of hidden puppet-master routine," writes the author, "the Rothschilds are available." A new generation of Rothschild conspiracy theories has taken hold in Asia and the Muslim world, and they have even found a niche in hip-hop. The Rothschilds, for their part, largely maintain a dignified silence. The author does a solid job of separating fact from fantasy, creating an interesting examination of how conspiracy theories appear, spread, and metastasize--not unlike tumors. With solid research and engaging humor, this book takes apart the conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild family.
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July 10, 2023
Journalist Rothschild (The Storm Is Upon Us) delves into the swirl of antisemitic rumors that have surrounded the Rothschild banking dynasty since the 18th century in this tenacious inquiry. Rothschild, who is of no relation to his subjects, shows how Mayer Rothschild’s unprecedented financial success while living in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt, coupled with his sons’ founding of equally successful financial businesses in London, Naples, Paris, and Vienna, became a focus of antisemitic hatred in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among other myths, Rothschild debunks the idea that the family profited off early knowledge, transmitted to London via a network of family agents, about the outcome the Battle of Waterloo by purchasing depressed British government bonds and thus making a fortune when news of the victory reached the public at large. The author not only discounts the more obviously antisemitic embellishments found in some versions of the story but disproves that the entire incident, which is still recounted in popular histories, took place at all. Rothschild focuses on how a “conspiracy theory industry” has grown around the family, beginning with anonymous 18th-century pamphleteers, but also reveals how more legitimate sources have created narratives that formed the foundation of later conspiracies; for example, the author points out that several anti-Rothschild tropes may have originated with Honore de Balzac, who satirized his patron James de Rothschild repeatedly in his work. The result is a patient and painstaking invalidation of antisemitism that also highlights its perniciousness.