Broadening Jewish History (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) - Softcover

Endelman, Todd M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904113028 ISBN 13: 9781904113027

Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2015

Synopsis

Now available in paperback, Broadening Jewish History expands the horizons of modern Jewish historiography by focusing on 'ordinary' rather than exceptional Jews, arguing that what ordinary people did or felt can do more to deepen our understanding of Jewish history than what a few exceptional individuals thought and wrote. The book also makes a strong case for comparative history, showing convincingly that only a comparison across national borders can identify the Germanness of German Jewish history or the Englishness of English Jewish history, and thereby reveal what is unique about each. This innovative collection of historiographical essays and case studies redefines the area under consideration and deftly restates the need for Jewish social history to counterbalance the current focus on cultural studies. The essays offer an important examination of the major trends in the writing of modern Jewish history and the assumptions that have guided historians in their narration of the Jewish past. The book shows in particular how the two watershed events of 20th-century Jewish history - the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel - influenced Jewish historiography for decades thereafter. It also demonstrates how progressive integration into the scholarly framework of American academia has shaped both the form and the content of Jewish historical research. Each of the case studies focuses on a largely unknown figure whose career illustrates the often tortuous paths of integration and acceptance that Jews faced. Some achieved fleeting fame, but many of the people who populate the volume remain altogether unknown, their histories recoverable only as statistics. In its wide-ranging analysis of trends in recent historical writing and its treatment of key themes and issues, Broadening Jewish History is essential reading for professional historians, students, and, indeed, all those with an interest in Jewish history.

About this title

About the Author:

Todd M. Endelman is Professor Emeritus of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. In 1976. He taught at Yeshiva University, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. He is the author of three books on Anglo-Jewish history-The Jews of Georgian England, Radical Assimilation in English Jewish History, and The Jews of Britain, 1656-2000-and the editor of three collections of essays-Jewish Apostasy in the Modern World, Comparing Jewish Societies, and Disraeli's Jewishness.

Review:

'One of the world's leading authorities on the history of European and specifically of British Jewry . . . This volume is subtitled Towards a Social History of Ordinary Jews thereby charting directions others must take if such social histories are ever to be written. The raw material is there, but discovering its location and divining its meaning are no easy tasks. Endelman has provided a guidebook and a manual.' Geoffrey Alderman, Jewish Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1904113028
• ISBN 13: 9781904113027
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392