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Corbyn, Hobson and the Jews. A short thread.
How could he have known? He was only writing an introduction for a book about the evils of capitalism and empire. What's not to like?
I suppose he could have read Harvey Mitchell's 1965 article, 'Hobson Revisited', which concludes that Hobson, in 'Imperialism', "reiterated the theme of an international fraternity of Jewish financiers pulling the strings of Europe's economic and political institutions". 
It's was probably never very likely that Corbyn was going to browse through Anthony Julius' history of English antisemitism, but it did come out the year before Corbyn published his introduction and it had a few choice observations on Hobson.
He could have read Colin Holmes' essay, 'J.A. Hobson and the Jews', which reminds us of Hobson's agitation against Jewish refugees in the era of the Aliens Act and anti-immigrant populism.
Or Holmes' much stronger criticisms of Hobson's anti-Jewish conspiracy theorising in his writings about the war in South Africa...
Bernard Porter's research on Hobson in 'Critics of Empire: British Radical attitudes to colonialism in Africa, 1895-194' would have set off a few alarm bells.
And, let's be honest, the cover of that book has a teensy clue on it...
Any or all of which might have allowed him to consider Hobson with a bit of intelligence and nuance. Like, say, @RichardToye managed...
Maybe Jeremy Corbyn just isn't very bright.
