The conventional lies and paradoxes of Jewish assimilation: Max Nordau's pre-Zionist answer to the Jewish question.

A French version appeared as "Un avenir sans juifs: les écrits présionistes du jeune Nordau" in "Max Nordau (1849-1923)" (1996) 225-243.
Another English version appeared as "A future without Jews: Max Nordau's pre-Zionist answer to the other Jewish Question" in his collected articles "The Other Jewish Question" (2011) 213-232.
Claims that though Nordau's two controversial books - "Die conventionellen Lügen der Kulturmenschheit" and "Paradoxe" - written in his pre-Zionist period refer only briefly to Jewish issues, they are conditioned by their author's social and cultural milieu. States that the "Jewish question" is, whether consciously or unconsciously, a structuring principle of Nordau's texts, mentioning especially the irresolvable antinomy between assimilationist desire and antisemitic repudiation. Argues that Nordau had to use his critique of European civilization also to justify his own stance as a radical assimilationist in a period of bitter antisemitism. In order to distance himself from the "Jewish" qualities then held in disdain, Nordau made use of the stereotypical and antisemitic imagery of his day, though without mentioning the Jews explicitly. In contrast to the prevalent nationalist and racial theories, he held that the Jews are a social grouping bound by inessential externalities, so that they could form part of, and even contribute to, European civilization.