Rethinking Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France

Rethinking Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France analyzes the Jew's place in France during the years 1815–48.

Julie Kalman (Author)

9780521897327, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 December 2009

248 pages, 5 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.54 kg

'This brilliantly sensitive and thoughtful book shows the 'quiet tolerance' of 1814–48 as the refusal by many to envisage their Jewish compatriots as French citizens.' Pamela Pilbeam, Royal Holloway, University of London

Rethinking Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France is a history of the stories the French told about the Jews in their midst during the early nineteenth century. Using a novel cultural analysis that brings together pamphlets, newspaper articles, novels, and works of art, Julie Kalman focuses on the period that historians have explored the least, encompassing the years 1815–48. Kalman shows that there were significant discussions surrounding France's Jewish population taking place during this period and argues that these discussions are central to our understanding of the history of the Jew's place in France. These stories also allow us to reflect on core questions of French history during this period, a time when the French were questioning the fundamental nature of their own identity.

Introduction: charting a noisy silence
1. Competing solutions to a Jewish question
2. The unyielding wall: Christianity and Judaism
3. The eternal Jew
4. Sensuality, depravity, and ritual murder: Jews in the Orient, and Jews at home?
5. 'Rothschildian greed: this new variety of despotism'
6. Evolutions in the Jewish question
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL]