"Of Fear and Strangers": Author George Makari for Cleveland Book Week

11030 East Boulevard,Cleveland OH 44106

16 September, 2022

Description

Join us as we welcome 2022 Anisfield Wolf Book Award winner for nonfiction, George Makari, in conversation with Case Western Reserve University Department of History Chair and Theodore J. Castele Professor, Dr. Jonathan Sadowsky. George Makari is an historian, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist whose “Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia” was a Bloomberg Best Nonfiction Book of 2021. The text is a riveting investigation into the history of an idea, xenophobia, which was declared the 2016 word of the year by Dictionary.com. The word, unlike antisemitism and racism, puts the emphasis on the perpetrator — not the victim — of these irrational fears, bigoted hatreds, and indefensible acts. “We see countless books that consider instances of racism,” Anisfield-Wolf Juror Steven Pinker notes. “Very few seek to understand it as a phenomenon to be studied and analyzed. ‘Of Fear and Strangers’ does that, free of cliché and jargon.” Facemasks are required at all Cleveland Book Week events while not eating and drinking. CLEVELAND BOOK WEEK: Visit anisfield-wolf.org/bookweek for a full schedule of September events featuring our other 2022 winners. Cleveland Book Week is presented in partnership with the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference and Literary Cleveland.