The chosen few : how education shaped Jewish history, 70-1492 /
In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville t...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Princeton :
Princeton University Press,
[2012]
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| Series: | Princeton economic history of the Western world.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | CONNECT CONNECT |
Table of Contents:
- 70 CE-1492 : How many Jews were there, and where and how did they live? From Jesus to Muhammad (1 CE-622) : a world of farmers ; From Muhammad to Hulagu Khan (622-1258) : farmers to merchants ; From Hulagu Khan to Tomás de Torquemada (1258-1492) : the end of the Golden Age ; Jewish history, 70 CE-1492 : puzzles
- Were the Jews a persecuted minority? Restrictions on Jewish economic activities ; Taxation discrimination ; Physical versus portable human capital ; Self-segregated religious minority ; The economics of small minorities ; Summary
- The people of the Book, 200 BCE-200 CE. The two pillars of Judaism from Ezra to Hillel (500-50 BCE) : the temple and the Torah ; The lever of Judaism : education as a religious norm ; The destruction of the second temple : from ritual sacrifices to Torah reading and study ; The legacy of Rabbinic Judaism : the Mishna and universal primary education, 10 CE-200 ; Judaism and education : the unique link in the world of Mishna
- The economics of Hebrew literacy in a world of farmers. Heterogeneity and the choices facing Jewish farmers circa 200 ; The economic theory : basic setup ; The economic theory : predictions ; Life in a village in the Galillee circa 200 through the lens of the theory ; Annex 4. A : Formal model of education and conversion of farmers
- Jews in the Talmud Era, 200-650 : the chosen few. An increasingly literate farming society ; Conversions of Jewish farmers ; Summary
- From farmers to merchants, 750-1150. The economics of Hebrew literacy in a world of merchants ; The Golden Age of literate Jews in the Muslim caliphates ; Summary ; Annex 6. A : Formal model of education and conversion of merchants
- Educated wandering Jews, 800-1250. Wandering Jews before Marco Polo ; Jewish migration within the Muslim caliphates ; Migration of Byzantine Jewry ; Jewish migration to and within Christian Europe ; Migration of the Jewish religious center ; Summary
- Segregation or choice? : From merchants to moneylenders, 1000-1500. The economics of money and credit in Medieval Europe ; Jewish prominence in moneylending : hypotheses ; The dynamics of Jewish moneylending in Medieval Europe ; Jewish moneylending in Medieval Italy : a detailed analysis ; Attitudes toward moneylending ; Facts and competing hypotheses ; From merchants to moneylenders : comparative advantage in complex intermediation ; Annex 8. A : The charter to the Jews of Vienna
- The Mongol shock : can Judaism survive when trade and urban economies collapse? The Mongol conquest of the Muslim Middle East ; Socioeconomic conditions in the Middle East under the Mongols ; Jewish demography under Mongol and Mamluk rule : an experiment ; Why Judaism cannot survive when trade and urban economies collapse ; Summary
- 1492 to today : open questions. Portrait of world Jewry circa 1492 ; Jewish history, 70 CE-1492 : epilogue ; Trajectory of the Jewish people over the past 500 years ; Persistence of Jewish occupational structure.
