European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism

1550-1750

By:

Jonathan I. Israel

This survey history of Jewish life and culture in early modern Europe is the first to focus on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a radically new phase in Jewish history. The book lays particular emphasis on the reversal of trends in western and central Europe in the late sixteenth century, which was followed by a rapid increase in Jewish numbers and activity, and far-reaching reorganization of Jewish society and institutions. A major consequence of these changes was a much expanded and more varied Jewish role in European civilization as a whole.

The first edition of this book was the joint winner of the Wolfson Literary Prize for History in 1986.
For this third edition, the book has been updated and includes a new introduction.

'A beautiful work of scholarship and synthesis that should immediately become a standard text . . . For the first time, the history of early modern European Jewry is presented as a coherent whole and in a form recognizable to non-Jewish scholars, adhering to all of the standards of scholarship . . . [a] sparkling book.'
David S. Katz, English Historical Review

'An ambitious and much needed study of Jewish life and culture in the context of Europe's intellectual and religious history . . . To this he has brought his own sharply critical judgement and a highly original interpretative theory . . . highly stimulating.'
Henry Roseveare, Economic History Review

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European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism

1550-1750

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