Synopses & Reviews
Lloyd Gartner provides a vivid description of the changing fortunes of the Jewish communities of the Old World--Europe, the Middle East, and beyond--and their gradual expansion into the New World of the Americas. The book begins in 1650, when the Jewish population had fallen to roughly 1.25 million, less than one-sixth of its peak at the start of the Christian era. Gartner leads us through the traditions, religious laws, communities, and their interactions with their neighbors, through the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and into Emancipation, the dark shadows of anti-Semitism, and the Second World War, bringing us up to the present with Zionism and the founding of Israel. Eminently readable and impeccably researched, the book is a superb introduction to one of the central threads of modern history.
About the Author
Lloyd Gartner is Professor of European Jewish History Emeritus at the University of Tel-Aviv.
Table of Contents
1. The Heritage of Medieval Judaism
2. Glimmerings of a New Age
3. A Rift Opening, 1720-1780
4. Era of Revolution
5. Emancipation and its Fruits: Western Europe, 1815-1870
6. Oppression, Expansion, and Reforms: The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1815-1881
7. Outposts
8. Age of Migration and Ideologies
9. From War to War, 1914-1939
10. Havens and National Home
11. Catastrophe, Recovery, and Triumph
12. A New Jewish World, 1950-1980
Index