The colors of Zion : blacks, Jews, and Irish from 1845 to 1945 / George Bornstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bornstein, George.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Racism--History.

Racism.

Racism--United States--History.

Ethnic relations--History.

Ethnic relations.

Jews--Identity.

Jews.

Black people--Race identity.

Black people.

Irish--Ethnic identity.

Irish.

Race relations in literature.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Jewish authors--History and criticism.

Irish literature--History and criticism.

Irish literature.

United States--Ethnic relations--History.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (271 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This comparative study focuses on three groups often seen as antagonistic—Blacks, Jews, and Irish. Resolutely aware of past tensions, Bornstein argues that the pendulum has swung too far in that direction and that it is time to recover the history of lost connections and cooperation among the groups. The chronological range stretches from Frederick Douglass’s tour of Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840s through the 1940s with the catastrophe of World War II. The study ends with the concept of the Righteous Gentile commemorated at the Israeli Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem--non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their own lives to rescue Jews from the horror of the Holocaust. Bornstein expands the term here to include all those Irish, Jewish, or African American figures who fought against narrow identification only with their own group and instead championed a wider and more humane vision of a shared humanity that sees hybridity rather than purity and love rather than resentment. The identity politics and culture wars of recent decades often made recognizing those positive qualities problematic. But with the election of a mixed-race president who himself embodies mixture and mutual respect (and who famously described himself as a “mutt”), the shallow and arbitrary nature of narrow identity politics become evident. This study recuperates strong voices from the past of all three groups in order to let them speak for themselves.

Contents:

Races

Diasporas and nationalisms

Melting pots

Popular and institutional cultures

The gathering storm: the 1930s and World War II.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674262195

0674262190

9780674059207

0674059204

OCLC:

727950233