Author of several influential works on prejudice and human rights, Erna Paris has republished her 1995 book, The End of Days: A Story of Tolerance, Tyranny and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, rightfully convinced that its focus on the fragility of pluralism in multi-ethnic societies remains a resonant theme. From Tolerance to Tyranny: A Cautionary Tale from Fifteenth Century Spain has two objectives. First, it seeks to chart the decline and ultimate collapse of convivencia (coexistence) among Muslims, Christians and Jews in medieval and early modern Spain. Second, it draws on that history to arrive at a more general understanding of why diverse societies are susceptible to “tyranny,” understood as the rejection of pluralism and the marginalization and, in some cases, destruction of minorities by majority groups. A new concluding chapter titled “Echoes and Mirrors” contrasts “twenty-first century events to the...
Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the School of Public Policy and Governance. He is the author of Becoming Multicultural: Immigration and the Politics of Membership in Canada and Germany (University of British Columbia Press, 2012).
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