This text explores two forms of hate and prejudice — racism in contemporary American society and the historical occurrence of anti-Semitism — under a single conceptual framework.

Jack Levin, author of The Violence of Hate, is a well-known scholar, author, and lecturer on the subject of hate crimes. In this book he shows how support for both racism and anti-Semitism can be conceptualized as occurring among four groups: hatemongers, dabblers, sympathizers, and spectators. Levin argues that hate and prejudice continue at a very dangerous level in our society, and that hate typically emanates not from the ranting and raving of a few people at the margins of society, but from ordinary people in the mainstream.