ABSTRACT
Extract from Max Nordau, Degeneration, translated from the German (1895), pp. 231–2.
Max Simon Nordau (1849–1923), Hungarian Jewish author, was born in Budapest and practised medicine in his native city. His novels, stories and essays are generally forgotten, but his attack upon modern art and modern artists entitled Degeneration was translated into many languages and became somewhat fashionable in many circles where the new aesthetic phenomena were both puzzling and infuriating. Dr Nordau is also an important figure in the history of Zionism in which he was an early associate of Theodore Herzl whom he joined, at a critical point in that movement, when Herzl wished to accept the British Government’s offer of territory in Uganda for settlement by the Jews instead of setting their hearts upon Palestine which was at that time under the rule of the Turks.
