This book investigates the historical conflation of antisemitism and anti-Black racism, examining how the Western imagination linked these two forms of prejudice from the Renaissance through the Nazi era. Tudor Parfitt, a scholar of Jewish studies and history, utilizes a wide array of cultural, religious, and scientific texts to trace the evolution of racialized thinking. He argues that the conceptualization of 'Black Jews' served as a focal point for shifting theories on human origins, polygenism, and racial hierarchy. The work demonstrates how these intersecting biases were weaponized to construct exclusionary ideologies that culminated in the racial policies of the Third Reich.

Scholars recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of how racial and religious prejudices are constructed and intertwined over centuries. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the extensive use of primary source material to support the author's historical arguments.