In this book historians and social scientists examine boycotts from the eighteenth century to the present day. Employed in struggles against British rule in the American colonies, against racial discrimination in the United States during the Civil Rights movement, and Apartheid in South Africa, today it is Israel that is the focus of a campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Boycotts have featured in campaigns undertaken by labour, consumer and nationalist movements. Jews were the focus of some boycotts instigated by nationalist movements in Central and Eastern Europe and Jewish businesses were targeted by the National Socialist regime in Germany. In this collection, contributors explore the history of past boycott movements and examine the different narratives put forward by proponents and opponents of the current BDS movement directed against Israel: one which places the movement within a history of struggles for ¿human rights¿; the other which regards BDS as the latest manifestation of an antisemitic tradition.

David Feldman is Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Previous publications include Integration, Disadvantage and Extremism co-edited with Ben Gidley (2014) and Reconstruction in Europe After the Second World War (2011) co-edited with Mark Mazower and Jessica Reinisch. 

1. Boycotts From the American Revolution to BDS; David Feldman.- 2. Consumer Boycotts in Modern History: States, Moral Boundaries and Political Action; Frank Trentmann.- 3. In Defense of the Nation: Protectionism and Boycotts in the Habsburg Lands, 1844-1914; Michael L. Miller.- 4. The Enemy Within: The Anti-Jewish Boycott and Polish Right-Wing Politics in the Early Twentieth Century; Grzegorz Krzywiec- 5. Zionist "Buy National" Campaigns in Interwar Palestine; Hizky Shoham.- 6. Picketing Jewish-Owned Businesses in Nazi Germany: A Boycott?; Christof Kreuzmueller.- 7. Boycott Campaigns of the Radical Left in Cold-War West Germany; Alexander Seidlmeier.- 8. 'The Onward March of aPeople Who Desire to be Totally Free': The 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott; Derek Charles Catsam, - 9. The United Farm Workers Union and the Use of the Boycott Against American Agribusiness; Lori A. Flores.- 10. Sanctions Against South Africa: Myths, Debates and Consequences; Yehonatan Alsheh.- 11. Sanctioning Apartheid: Comparing the South African and Palestinian Campaigns for Boycotts, Disinvestment and Sanctions; Lee Jones.- 12. A Collision of Frames: The BDS Movement and its Opponents in the United States; Sina Arnold.- 13.The British Summer of 2014: Boycotts, Antisemitism and the Jews; Dave Rich.- 14. Palestine: Boycott, Localism and Global Activism; Philip Marfleet- 15. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement and Radical Democracy; John Chalcraft.- 16. Moral-Historical Questions of the Anti-Israel Boycott; Jeremy Krikler.