A robust collection that sheds light on multiple aspects of Jewish history.
This fifth book in a series about Jewish history and culture, edited by Kaplan, covers the years 1500 to 1750.
The “early modern period” discussed here was a time of many upheavals in Jewish history. Expulsions from various European locales (Vienna in 1670, for example) and communities in the New World and outbreaks of the plague are just a few of the occurrences that shaped Jewish life. This was a time of great thinkers, like Baruch Spinoza, and men who claimed to be the messiah, like the Portuguese-born Solomon Molkho (while the former was exiled for his controversial views, the latter was executed in 1532). Such is the wealth of information the reader encounters in the writings, visual arts, and miscellanea referenced here. The Chantilly Haggadah, from an unknown artist in the 1500s, includes the rules for a Passover seder as practiced by “Greek-speaking Jewish communities of the eastern Mediterranean.” Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, a rabbi born in 1578, writes of his experience being arrested for blasphemy against Christianity. Visual material includes images of a Torah ark from a synagogue in Urbino, Italy, and of ceremonies such as a wedding at a synagogue in Germany in 1705. With over 1,000 pages of content, even a cursory glance requires commitment, which pays off in unexpected ways. The reader may be surprised at just how contemporary many of these early modern period writers may seem. A brief guide written in Yiddish for traveling to Jerusalem includes the practical advice to “buy Turkish-style travel garments” during the journey. Other entries surprise in different ways: Excerpts from confessions from the Spanish Inquisition include statements from some who were enticed into “serving the Law of Moses” at the behest of a girl who was eventually burned at the stake. Though the length of the book may be daunting, it is filled with enticing subject matter.
A robust collection that sheds light on multiple aspects of Jewish history.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0300135510
Page Count: 1392
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
HISTORY | MODERN | JEWISH | GENERAL HISTORY
Occasionally unfocused, but redeems itself by putting a vivid, human face on an unimaginable nightmare.
A ground-level illustration of how the plague ravaged Europe.
For his tenth book, science writer Kelly (Three on the Edge, 1999, etc.) delivers a cultural history of the Black Death based on accounts left by those who witnessed the greatest natural disaster in human history. Spawned somewhere on the steppes of Central Asia, the plague arrived in Europe in 1347, when a Genoese ship carried it to Sicily from a trading post on the Black Sea. Over the next four years, at a time when, as the author notes, “nothing moved faster than the fastest horse,” the disease spread through the entire continent. Eventually, it claimed 25 million lives, one third of the European population. A thermonuclear war would be an equivalent disaster by today's standards, Kelly avers. Much of the narrative depends on the reminiscences of monks, doctors, and other literate people who buried corpses or cared for the sick. As a result, the author has plenty of anecdotes. Common scenes include dogs and children running naked, dirty, and wild through the streets of an empty village, their masters and parents dead; Jews burnt at the stake, scapegoats in a paranoid Christian world; and physicians at the University of Paris consulting the stars to divine cures. These tales give the author opportunities to show Europeans—filthy, malnourished, living in densely packed cities—as easy targets for rats and their plague-bearing fleas. They also allow him to ramble. Kelly has a tendency to lose the trail of the disease in favor of tangents about this or that king, pope, or battle. He returns to his topic only when he shifts to a different country or city in a new chapter, giving the book a haphazard feel. Remarkably, the story ends on a hopeful note. After so many perished, Europe was forced to develop new forms of technology to make up for the labor shortage, laying the groundwork for the modern era.
Occasionally unfocused, but redeems itself by putting a vivid, human face on an unimaginable nightmare.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000692-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.
An expert on Russia delivers a crucially relevant study of a country that has been continuously “subjected to the vicissitudes of ruling ideologies.”
Wolfson History Prize winner Figes, one of the world’s leading authorities on Russian history and culture, shows how, over centuries, Russian autocrats have manipulated intertwined layers of mythology and history to suit their political and imperial purposes. Regarding current affairs, the author argues convincingly that to understand Putin’s aggressive behavior toward Ukraine and other neighboring nations, it is essential to grasp how Russia has come to see itself within the global order, especially in Asia and Europe. Figes emphasizes the intensive push and pull between concepts of East and West since the dubious founding of Kievan Rus, “the first Russian state,” circa 980. Russia’s geography meant it had few natural boundaries and was vulnerable to invasion—e.g., by the Mongols—and its mere size often required strong, central military control. It was in Moscow’s interests to increase its territorial boundaries and keep its neighbors weak, a strategy still seen today. Figes explores the growth of the “patrimonial autocracy” and examines how much of the mechanics of the country’s autocracy, bureaucracy, military structure, oligarchy, and corruption were inherited from three centuries of Mongol rule. From Peter the Great to Catherine the Great to Alexander II (the reformer who freed the serfs) and through the Bolsheviks to Stalin: In most cases, everything belonged to the state, and there were few societal institutions to check that power. “This imbalance—between a dominating state and a weak society—has shaped the course of Russian history,” writes the author in a meaningful, definitive statement. Today, Putin repudiates any hint of Westernizing influences (Peter the Great) while elevating the Eastern (Kievan Rus, the Orthodox Church). In that, he is reminiscent of Stalin, who recognized the need for patriotic fervor and national myths and symbols to unite and ensure the oppression of the masses.
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79689-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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