The Economy in Jewish History

New Perspectives on the Interrelationship between Ethnicity and Economic Life

Gideon Reuveni, Sarah Wobick-Segev

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781845457747
• eBook ISBN: 9781845459864
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: History

Jewish historiography tends to stress the religious, cultural, and political aspects of the past. By contrast the "economy" has been pushed to the margins of the Jewish discourse and scholarship since the end of the Second World War. This volume takes a fresh look at Jews and the economy, arguing that a broader, cultural approach is needed to understand the central importance of the economy. The very dynamics of economy and its ability to function depend on the ability of individuals to interact, and on the shared values and norms that are fostered within ethnic communities. Thus this volume sheds new light on the interrelationship between religion, ethnicity, culture, and the economy, revealing the potential of an "economic turn" in the study of history.

Table of contents

• THE ECONOMY IN JEWISH HISTORY
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Prolegomena to an "Economic Turn" in Jewish History
• Part I — Rethinking the Economy in Jewish History
• Chapter 1 — Can Economic History Date the Inception of Jewish Modernity?
• Chapter 2 — Wandering as Circulation: Doestoevsky and Marx on the "Jewish Question"
• Chapter 3. Money Makes the Jew Go Round: West German Jewry and the Search for Flexibility
• Part II — Jews in the Marketplace
• Chapter 4 — All Talk or Business as Usual? Brokerage and Schmoozing in a Swiss Urban Society in the Early Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 5 — Socialists, Bankers, and Sephardic Jews: The Pereire Brothers and the Crédit Mobilier
• Chapter 6 — Buying, Selling, Being, Drinking: Jewish Coffeehouse Consumption in the Long Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 7 — Consuming Powers: The "Jewish Department Store" in German Politics and Culture
• Part III — Jewish Economies in National and Transnational Contexts
• Chapter 8 — Going Native: Moritz Jellinek and the Modernization of the Hungarian Economy
• Chapter 9 — Jews, Plumes, and Global Commerce in the Modern Period
• Chapter 10 — Trading in Torah: Bootleg Bibles and Secondhand Scripture in the Age of European Imperialism
• Chapter 11 — Cut to Zionism: The Emergence of the Diamond Industry in British-Ruled Palestine
• Contributors to the Volume
• Selected Bibliography
• Index