Description:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. Purchasing Power: The Economics of Modern Jewish History -- Chapter 1 Licenses, Cartels, and Kehila: Jewish Moneylending and the Strug gle Against Restraint of Trade in Early Modern Rome -- Chapter 2. Contraband for the Catholic King: Jews of the French Pyrenees in the Tobacco Trade and Spanish State Finance -- Chapter 3. Daily Business or an Affair of Consequence? Credit, Reputation, and Bankruptcy Among Jewish Merchants in Eighteenth- Century Central Europe -- Chapter 4. Jewish Quarters: The Economics of Segregation in the Kingdom of Poland -- Chapter 5. From Moses to Moses: Jews, Clothing, and Colonial Commerce -- Chapter 6. Brokering a Rock ’n’ Roll International: Jewish Record Men in America and Britain -- Chapter 7. The “West” and the Rest: Jewish Philanthropy and Globalization to c. 1880 -- Chapter 8. Rebels Without a Patron State: How Israel Financed the 1948 War -- Chapter 9. Orthodoxy Through Diamonds: Jewish Life in Antwerp after World War II -- Chapter 10. Faith Meets Politics and Resources: Reassessing Modern Transnational Jewish Activism -- Chapter 11. Anxieties of Distinctiveness: Walter Sombart’s The Jews and Modern Capitalism and the Politics of Jewish Economic History -- Notes -- Index -- List of Contributors
How has the ability of Jews to amass and wield power, within both Jewish and non-Jewish society, influenced and been influenced by their economic activity? Purchasing Power answers this question by examining the nexus between money and power in modern Jewish history. It does so, in its first section, by presenting a series of case studies of the ways in which the economic choices made by Jewish businessmen could bring them wealth and influence. The second section focuses on transnational Jewish philanthropic and economic networks. The discussions there reveal how the wielding of power by Jewish organizations on the world stage could shape not only Jewish society but also the international arena.In this way, the contributors to this volume reposition economics as central to our understanding of the Jewish experience from early modern Rome to contemporary America. Its importance for the creation of the State of Israel is also examined. As the editors write: "The study of culture and identity has proved valuable and enlightening (and, in some senses, also comfortable) in understanding the complexities of Jewish history. Perhaps we should now return to the issues of the material bases for Jewish life, and the ways in which Jews have exploited them in their search for wealth and power. Our understanding of the Jewish past will be immeasurably enriched in the effort."Contributors: Cornelia Aust, Bernard Cooperman, Veerle Vanden Daelen, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Glenn Dynner, Abigail Green, Jonathan Karp, Rebecca Kobrin, Adam D. Mendelsohn, Derek Penslar, Adam Sutcliffe, Adam Teller, Carsten L. Wilke