Prophets of the Past

Interpreters of Jewish History

Bibliographic Data

ID19913296
AuthorsMichael Brenner (0000-0003-4926-0957, corresponding author), Steven Rendall
Year2010
Pages320
Publication date2010-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueProphets of the Past (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1515/9781400836611
OpenAlexW2250338051
Open LibraryOL29054596M
ISBN9781400836611
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Prophets of the Past is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern European approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of Polish-Jewish historians, and the short-lived efforts of Soviet-Jewish historians; to the work of British and American scholars such as Cecil Roth and Salo Baron; and to Zionist and post-Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. He also unravels the distortions of Jewish history writing, including antisemitic Nazi research into the "Jewish question," the Soviet portrayal of Jewish history as class struggle, and Orthodox Jewish interpretations of history as divinely inspired. History proved to be a uniquely powerful weapon for modern Jewish scholars during a period when they had no nation or army to fight for their ideological and political objectives, whether the goal was Jewish emancipation, diasporic autonomy, or the creation of a Jewish state. As Brenner demonstrates in this illuminating and incisive book, these historians often found legitimacy for these struggles in the Jewish past

Anti-Zionism · Antisemitism · Archaeology · Emancipation · Haskalah · Ideology · Jewish history · Jewish studies · Judaism · Legitimacy · Nazism · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · Zionism · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · 1789 · Jews

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