The International Jew

Libel suit

Following the publishing of an article in the Independent that alleged Jewish control of New York banks that were holding Texas cotton farmers hostage financially, San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro sued Ford and Dearborn Publishing for libel in a $1 million lawsuit.

During the trial, William J. Cameron, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified at the libel trial that he never discussed the content of the pages nor sent them to Ford for his approval. Investigative journalist Max Wallace doubted the veracity of this claim and wrote that James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro.

According to political scientist Michael Barkun, "That Cameron would have continued to publish such controversial material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval.'"

Ultimately, the libel suit led Ford to issue a retraction and public apology in which he indicated having been unaware of the nature of the remarks, both those published in the Independent, and the subsequent pamphlets, and was "shocked" by the content.

Soon after the trial, Ford closed the Independent on December 31, 1927.

Influence on Nazi antisemitism

Ford's International Jew was translated into German in 1922 and cited as an influence by Baldur von Schirach, one of the Nazi leaders, who stated "I read it and became anti-Semitic. In those days this book made such a deep impression on my friends and myself because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success, also the exponent of a progressive social policy. In the poverty-stricken and wretched Germany of the time, youth looked toward America, and apart from the great benefactor, Herbert Hoover, it was Henry Ford who to us represented America."

Praising American leadership in eugenics in his book Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler considered Ford an inspiration, and noted this admiration in his book, calling him "a single great man". Hitler was also known to keep copies of The International Jew, as well as a large portrait of Ford in his Munich office.

Content

After publication in the Independent, the articles were compiled as chapters into a four volume set as follows:

Volume 1: The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem (1920)

1. The Jew in Character and Business
2. Germany's Reaction Against the Jew
3. Jewish History in the United States
4. The Jewish Question—Fact or Fancy?
5. Anti-Semitism—Will It Appear in the U.S.?
6. Jewish Question Breaks Into the Magazines
7. Arthur Brisbane Leaps to the Help of Jewry
8. Does a Definite Jewish World Program Exist?
9. The Historic Basis of Jewish Imperialism
10. An Introduction to the "Jewish Protocols"
11. "Jewish" Estimate of Gentile Human Nature
12. "Jewish Protocols" Claim Partial Fulfillment
13. "Jewish" Plan to Split Society by "Ideas"
14. Did the Jews Foresee the World War?
15. Is the Jewish "Kahal" the Modern "Soviet"?
16. How the "Jewish Question" Touches the Farm
17. Does Jewish Power Control the World Press?
18. Does This Explain Jewish Political Power?
19. The All-Jewish Mark on "Red Russia"
20. Jewish Testimony in Favor of Bolshevism

Volume 2: Jewish Activities in the United States (1921)

1. How Jews in the U.S. Conceal Their Strength
2. Jewish Testimony on "Are Jews a Nation?"
3. Jew Versus Non-Jew in New York Finance
4. The High and Low of Jewish Money Power
5. "Disraeli of America"—A Jew of Super-Power
6. The Scope of Jewish Dictatorship in the U.S.
7. Jewish Copper Kings Reap Rich War-Profits
8. Jewish Control of the American Theater
9. The Rise of the First Jewish Theatrical Trust
10. How Jews Capitalized a Protest Against Jews
11. The Jewish Aspect of the "Movie" Problem
12. Jewish Supremacy in Motion Picture World
13. Rule of the Jewish Kehillah Grips New York
14. The Jewish Demand for "Rights" in America
15. "Jewish Rights" Clash With American Rights
16. "Jewish Rights" to Put Studies Out of Schools
17. Disraeli—British Premier, Portrays the Jews
18. Taft Once Tried to Resist Jews—and Failed
19. When Editors Were Independent of the Jews
20. Why the Jews Dislike the Morgenthau Report
21. Jews Use the Peace Conference to Bind Poland
22. The Present Status of the Jewish Question

Volume 3: Jewish Influence in American Life (1921)

1. The Jews and the "Religious Persecution" Cry
2. Are the Jews Victims or Persecutors?
3. Jewish Gamblers Corrupt American Baseball
4. Jewish Degradation of American Baseball
5. Jewish Jazz Becomes Our National Music
6. How the Jewish Song Trust Makes You Sing
7. Jewish Hot-Beds of Bolshevism in the U.S.
8. Jew Trades Link With World Revolutionaries
9. Will Jewish Zionism Bring Armageddon?
10. How the Jews Use Power—By an Eyewitness
11. How Jews Ruled and Ruined Tammany Hall
12. Jew Wires Direct Tammany's Gentile Puppets
13. B'nai B'rith Leader Discusses the Jews
14. Dr. Levy, a Jew, Admits His People's Error
15. Jewish Idea in American Monetary Affairs
16. Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve Plan
17. Jewish Idea of Central Bank for America
18. How Jewish International Finance Functions
19. Jewish Power and America's Money Famine

Volume 4: Aspects of Jewish Power in the United States (1922)

1. How Jews Gained American Liquor Control
2. Gigantic Jewish Liquor Trust and Its Career
3. The Jewish Element in Bootlegging Evil
4. Angles of Jewish Influence in American Life
5. The Jews' Complaint Against "Americanism"
6. The Jewish Associates of Benedict Arnold
7. Benedict Arnold and Jewish Aid in Shady Deal
8. Arnold and His Jewish Aids at West Point
9. The Gentle Art of Changing Jewish Names
10. Jewish "Kol Nidre" and "Eli, Eli" Explained
11. Jews as New York Magistrates See Them
12. Jews Are Silent, the National Voice Is Heard
13. What Jews Attempted When they Had Power
14. The Jewish Question in Current Testimony
15. America's Jewish Enigma—Louis Marshall
16. The Economic Plans of International Jews
17. A Jew Sees His People As Others See Them
18. Candid Address to Jews on the Jewish Problem
19. An Address to "Gentiles" on the Jewish Problem

Abridged version in 1949

In June 1949, a 174-page, one-volume abridgement of the text appeared, titled The International Jew, subtitled "The World's Foremost Problem", edited by George F. Green, who was editor of the Independent Nationalist, a British fascist publication. The book was sold in the United States by the Christian Nationalist Crusade.