Norman Cohn
Encyclopedia
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA
(12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British
academic
, historian
and writer
who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex
.
, Cohn was educated at Gresham's School
and Christ Church, Oxford
. He was a scholar and research student at Christ Church between 1933 and 1939, taking a first-class degree in Modern Languages in 1936. He served for six years in the British Army
, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1939 and transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1944, where his knowledge of modern languages found employment. In 1941 he married Vera Broido
, with whom he had a son, the writer Nik Cohn
. In the immediate post-war period, he was stationed in Vienna
, ostensibly to interrogate Nazis, but he also encountered many refugees from Stalinism
, and the similarities in persecutorial obsessions evinced both by Nazism
and Stalinism fueled his interest in the historical background for these ideologically opposed, yet functionally similar movements. After his discharge, he taught successively in universities in Scotland
, Ireland
, England
, the United States
and Canada
.
In 1966 he was appointed a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sussex
and became the director of a research project on the preconditions for persecutions and genocides. From 1973 to 1980, Cohn was Astor-Wolfson Professor at Sussex.
Norman Cohn died on July 31, 2007, in Cambridge, England, at age 92, of degenerative heart condition.
, an influential work translated into more than eleven languages, he traced back to the distant past the pattern of chiliastic upheaval which marred the revolutionary movements of the 20th century. Likewise, in Europe's Inner Demons he tracked the historical sources of the mania for scapegoating minorities which, within Christendom
, culminated in the Great European witchhunt.
His book Warrant for Genocide
is on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-semitic forgery purporting to describe a Jewish conspiracy
for world domination. He argued that this conspiracy theory
motivated its supporters to seek the massacre of the Jewish people and became a major psychological factor in the Nazi Holocaust.
In "Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith" (1993), he sought to trace the source of millennial religious themes in ancient civilisations. Cohn, with his background in dealing with totalitarian regimes and the sufferings of his relatives during the Holocaust, described all his work as studies on the phenomena that sought:
His work was honoured by his election as a Fellow of the British Academy, for which he was nominated by Isaiah Berlin
. His The Pursuit of the Millennium was ranked as one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century in a survey conducted by the Times Literary Supplement.
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
(12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
.
Life
Born into a mixed Jewish-Catholic family in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Cohn was educated at Gresham's School
Gresham's School
Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...
and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. He was a scholar and research student at Christ Church between 1933 and 1939, taking a first-class degree in Modern Languages in 1936. He served for six years in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1939 and transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1944, where his knowledge of modern languages found employment. In 1941 he married Vera Broido
Vera Broido
Vera Broido was a Russian born writer and a chronicler of the Russian Revolution as one who grew up through it and lost her mother to its aftermath.- Life :...
, with whom he had a son, the writer Nik Cohn
Nik Cohn
Nik Cohn is a British rock journalist, born in London in 1946. He was brought up in Derry, in the North of Ireland, the son of historian Norman Cohn and Russian writer Vera Broido...
. In the immediate post-war period, he was stationed in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, ostensibly to interrogate Nazis, but he also encountered many refugees from Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, and the similarities in persecutorial obsessions evinced both by Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Stalinism fueled his interest in the historical background for these ideologically opposed, yet functionally similar movements. After his discharge, he taught successively in universities in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
In 1966 he was appointed a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
and became the director of a research project on the preconditions for persecutions and genocides. From 1973 to 1980, Cohn was Astor-Wolfson Professor at Sussex.
Norman Cohn died on July 31, 2007, in Cambridge, England, at age 92, of degenerative heart condition.
Work
Cohn's work as a historian focused on the problem of the roots of that persecutorial fanaticism which became resurgent in modern Europe at a time when industrial progress and the spread of democracy had convinced many that modern civilisation had stepped out forever from the savageries of earlier historical societies. In his The Pursuit of the MillenniumThe Pursuit of the Millennium
, is Norman Cohn's study of millenarian cult movements.Covering a wide span of time, Cohn's book discusses topics such as anti-Semitism and the Crusades, in addition to such sects as the Brethren of the Free Spirit, flagellants, the Anabaptists, and the Ranters...
, an influential work translated into more than eleven languages, he traced back to the distant past the pattern of chiliastic upheaval which marred the revolutionary movements of the 20th century. Likewise, in Europe's Inner Demons he tracked the historical sources of the mania for scapegoating minorities which, within Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
, culminated in the Great European witchhunt.
His book Warrant for Genocide
Warrant for Genocide
Warrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and worldwide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
is on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-semitic forgery purporting to describe a Jewish conspiracy
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
for world domination. He argued that this conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
motivated its supporters to seek the massacre of the Jewish people and became a major psychological factor in the Nazi Holocaust.
In "Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith" (1993), he sought to trace the source of millennial religious themes in ancient civilisations. Cohn, with his background in dealing with totalitarian regimes and the sufferings of his relatives during the Holocaust, described all his work as studies on the phenomena that sought:
"to purify the world through the annihilation of some category of human beings imagined as agents of corruption and incarnations of evil".
His work was honoured by his election as a Fellow of the British Academy, for which he was nominated by Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...
. His The Pursuit of the Millennium was ranked as one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century in a survey conducted by the Times Literary Supplement.
Works
- The Pursuit of the MillenniumThe Pursuit of the Millennium, is Norman Cohn's study of millenarian cult movements.Covering a wide span of time, Cohn's book discusses topics such as anti-Semitism and the Crusades, in addition to such sects as the Brethren of the Free Spirit, flagellants, the Anabaptists, and the Ranters...
: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (1957) - Warrant for GenocideWarrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and worldwide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (1966), a scholarly study on the mythMythologyThe term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of the Jewish world domination conspiracyConspiracy theoryA conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
, especially as evidenced in the fabricated The Protocols of the Elders of ZionThe Protocols of the Elders of ZionThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...
document - Europe's Inner Demons (1975) rev.edition Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom (2000)
- Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith (1993, revised edition 2001)
- Noah's Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought (1996)
Essays
- The Horns of Moses Commentary vol. 3 (September 1958)
- The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy: A Case Study in Collective Psychopathology Commentary vol. 41 no. 6 (June 1966) 35
- Monsters of Chaos Horizon: Magazine of the Arts no. 4 (1972) 42
- Permanence de Millénarismes Le Contrat Social: revue historique et critique des faits et des idées vol. 6 no. 5 (September 1962) 289
- Adamo: the Distinguished Savage The Twentieth Century vol. 155 (January 1954) 263
- The Saint-Simonian Extravaganza The Twentieth Century vol. 154 (July 1953) 354
- The Magus of the North The Twentieth Century vol. 153 (January 1953) 283
- The Saint-Simonian Portent The Twentieth Century vol. 152 (July 1952)
- How Time Acquired a Consummation Apocalypse Theory and the End of the World (1995) 21-37(compilation)