2 options
Power & powerlessness in Jewish history / David Biale.
LIBRA DS134 .B53 1986
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Biale, David, 1949-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Jewish diaspora.
- Jews--Politics and government.
- Jews.
- Jews--History--Philosophy.
- History.
- Philosophy.
- Power (Social sciences).
- Israel--International status.
- Israel.
- Sovereignty.
- Jews--United States--Politics and government.
- United States.
- Politics and government.
- United States--Ethnic relations.
- Ethnic relations.
- International law.
- Jewish philosophy.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 244 pages ; 21 cm
- Other Title:
- Power and powerlessness in Jewish history
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Schocken Books, 1986.
- Summary:
- Argues against the accepted view of historians that the Jewish past in the Diaspora was characterized by political powerlessness. In fact, the Jews enjoyed considerable self-rule during the Middle Ages. Both Christianity and Islam held that the Jews' refusal to convert incurred degradation and deprivation, but their protection was assured. Attacks on the Jews were usually carried out by rebels against the established power. From the 13th century on, the Jews' status declined due to new theological attitudes and the rise of the centralized, absolutist state. The Jewish Enlightenment created the myth of the Jew who was powerless in the Middle Ages, reinforced by Zionist attacks on Diaspora passivity and by the Holocaust. Recently, rising anti-Zionism has led to a change in the Jews' view of Israel as representing a radical break with the powerless past; a tendency to identify with Holocaust victims indicates belief in an eternal fate of persecution. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism).
- Contents:
- The crisis of Jewish ideology
- Sovereignty and imperialism in antiquity
- The political theory of the Diaspora
- Corporate power in the Middle Ages
- Absolutism and enlightenment
- Between Haskalah and Holocaust
- Israel and the meaning of modern sovereignty
- American Jews and contemporary Diaspora power
- The political legacy of Jewish history.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-237) and index.
- National Jewish Book Awards - Jewish History, Winner, 1987
- Other Format:
- Online version: Biale, David, 1949- Power & powerlessness in Jewish history.
- ISBN:
- 0805240152
- 9780805240153
- 0805208410
- 9780805208412
- OCLC:
- 13329632
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.