Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Schechter, Ronald.

Title Obstinate Hebrews : representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815 / Ronald Schechter
Published Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2003

Copies

Description 1 online resource (viii, 331 pages)
Series Studies on the history of society and culture ; 49
S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies
Studies on the history of society and culture ; 49.
S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies.
Contents Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. A Nation within the Nation? The Jews of Old Regime France -- 2. Jews and Philosophes -- 3. Jews and Citizens -- 4. Contrapuntal Readings: Jewish Self-Representation in Prerevolutionary France -- 5. Constituting Differences: The French Revolution and the Jews -- 6. Familiar Strangers: Napoleon and the Jews -- Conclusion: Jews and Other 8220;Others8221; -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Summary Enlightenment writers, revolutionaries, and even Napoleon discussed and wrote about France's tiny Jewish population at great length. Why was there so much thinking about Jews when they were a minority of less than one percent and had little economic and virtually no political power? In this unusually wide-ranging study of representations of Jews in eighteenth-century France--both by Gentiles and Jews themselves--Ronald Schechteroffers fresh perspectives on the Enlightenment and French Revolution, on Jewish history, and on the nature of racism and intolerance. Informed by the latest historical scholarship and by the insights of cultural theory, Obstinate Hebrews is a fascinating tale of cultural appropriation cast in the light of modern society's preoccupation with the "other." Schechter argues that the French paid attention to the Jews because thinking about the Jews helped them reflect on general issues of the day. These included the role of tradition in religion, the perfectibility of human nature, national identity, and the nature of citizenship. In a conclusion comparing and contrasting the "Jewish question" in France with discourses about women, blacks, and Native Americans, Schechter provocatively widens his inquiry, calling for a more historically precise approach to these important questions of difference
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-317) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Relations with Jews
SUBJECT Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 fast
Subject Jews -- France -- Identity
Jews -- Public opinion.
Public opinion -- France -- History -- 18th century
Public opinion -- France -- History -- 19th century
Jews in literature.
French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Jews -- France -- Social conditions -- 18th century
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
HISTORY -- Europe -- General.
Ethnic relations
French literature
Jews -- Identity
Jews in literature
Jews -- Public opinion
Jews -- Social conditions
Public opinion
Relations with Jews
SUBJECT France -- Ethnic relations
Subject France
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780520929357
0520929357
1417525606
9781417525607
1597347809
9781597347808