This is not the first book on the anti-Semitic riots in western Galicia in 1898; these events have been studied and described in the context of Polish antisemitism and in that of the political modernization of the Polish peasantry and its emerging “people's” parties in the past. What the author, having earlier published on Habsburg celebrations, focuses on is the Habsburg context—not really ignored in former studies, as he insists (3), but in fact expanded by him to a certain extent.

The other novelty here is the meticulously-described process of the anti-Jewish activities themselves, based on a wealth of archival, judicial, and journalistic documents. Daniel Unowsky starts with the political agitators like Stanisław Stojałowski, putting a specific emphasis on the “asemitic” Mateusz Jeż’s “Jewish Secrets” pamphlet that seemingly became the central source of “information” for the rioters—apart from the different peasant papers published by the ludowcy. Unowsky then describes the riots themselves: their instigation and the reaction of the authorities. In most cases, the unrest started on a basis of reasons from the countryside and the criticism of Jewish merchants and inn-keepers, but the events were also very strong in towns like Stary Sącz or in Przemyśl, where the end of a construction boom replaced the chance to find prosperous work by hunger, and the Jews were blamed for it. When it comes to the plunder, as suggested in the book's title, we find a similar diagnosis in Stefan Wiese's recent work on the Russian 1881 pogroms (Pogrome im Zarenreich: Dynamiken kollektiver Gewalt, Hamburg 2016): the rioters were mostly interested in destruction, material gain, and plunder, not in their victims’ death and only in some cases in inflicting serious physical injury. Very similar to earlier studies, the author identifies three groups of participants: leaders, looters, and curious crowds (74), all of them playing important roles.

The court trials of the perpetrators and the political argumentations connected to them are of more interest to the author than it was the case in earlier studies. In some cases, Jews who reacted to the pogromists were sentenced, too, even if they—as in one case—did nothing violent. In this case, “provocation” was the accusation by which the Austrian authorities seemingly wanted to demonstrate their impartiality (123). Vienna was strongly against anything bringing unrest into the crown lands. Besides, Unowsky rejects the term pogrom, stating that it should be limited to the “deadly” Russian riots. In doing so, he endorses (probably unwillingly) the apologetic Polish historiographical allegation (he quotes even Adam Bujak on pages 7–8) that Poles—unlike the Russians and others—do not commit pogroms.

In fact, all casualties involved in these events were on the side of the perpetrators (caused by the armed authorities), and the state of emergency that suspended some of the democratic innovations of the monarchy and of Galician autonomy was met with strong criticism not only from the peasant parties, but also from the socialists with whom they sometimes cooperated. Although there were some harsh sentences for the culprits (which were criticized by their political backers), the Habsburg authorities fought against unrest, not antisemitism. Furthermore, although Habsburg officials made efforts to treat Jews as regular citizens, many west Galicians were easily convinced that an imperial edict granting permission to rob Jews existed, and that Catholics were in fact the “real victims.” At the base of it all, Unowsky establishes the fact that Jews were the main targets of political argumentation on various levels. Thus, economic modernization (against the conservative landlords), nationalization, sobriety, and cooperatives propaganda could operate with anti-Jewish slogans and activities. Rumors that allegedly justified the looting and beating were adapted to the respective needs.

The deeply structured analysis of the 1898 events and their embedding into Habsburg politics, including the given reasons why they were mostly absent in eastern Galicia (111), assures this book a place among the standard literature on antisemitism in east central Europe.