Jews and Other Germans

by Van Rahden, Till; Brainard, Marcus

• ISBN13: 9780299226947
• ISBN10: 0299226948
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-04
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Jews and Other Germansis the first social and cultural history to probe the parameters of Jewish integration in the half century between the founding of the German Empire in 1871 and the early Weimar Republic. Questioning received wisdom about German-Jewish assimilation and the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany, van Rahdenrs"s prize-winning book restores some of the complexity and openness of relations between Protestants, Catholics, and Jews before World War I. Closely analyzing the political, social, and cultural life in a major German city, van Rahden shows that Jews were a part of a broad urban community that encompassed diversity within unity, at once offering them a large measure of equality while permitting them to remain meaningfully Jewish.Jews and Other Germansalso substantially revises the chronology of anti-Semitism in Germany, showing that Jews only began to experience exclusion from Breslaurs"s social world during World War I. Yet van Rahden not only illuminates Breslaurs"s multicultural fabric; he also tells the story of this remarkable city as one of cultural and religious conflict and coexistence. Recounting the experiences of Jews, Protestants, and Catholics within a single narrative, he offers a critical intervention into scholarship on liberalism and civil society in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe.

Author Biography

Till van Rahden holds the Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies and is associate professor in the department of literature and modern languages at the UniversitT de MontrTal. Marcus Brainard earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Osnabrnck, Germany, and is the editor and translator of numerous works of philosophy and history.