ABSTRACT

The Routledge Companion to Jewish History and Historiography provides an overview of Jewish history from the biblical to the contemporary period, while simultaneously placing Jewish history into conversation with the most central historiographical methods and issues and some of the core source materials used by scholars within the field.

The field of Jewish history is profitably interdisciplinary. Drawing from the historical methods and themes employed in the study of various periods and geographical regions as well as from academic fields outside of history, it utilizes a broad range of source materials produced by Jews and non-Jews. It grapples with many issues that were core to Jewish life, culture, community, and identity in the past, while reflecting and addressing contemporary concerns and perspectives. Divided into four parts, this volume examines how Jewish history has engaged with and developed more general historiographical methods and considerations. Part I provides a general overview of Jewish history, while Parts II and III respectively address the rich sources and methodologies used to study Jewish history.

Concluding in Part IV with a timeline, glossary, and index to help frame and connect the history, sources, and methodologies presented throughout, The Routledge Companion to Jewish History and Historiography is the perfect volume for anyone interested in Jewish history.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

ByDean Phillip Bell

part I|313 pages

Jewish histories

chapter 1|17 pages

The biblical period

Society, culture, and demographics
ByLeonard J. Greenspoon

chapter 2|9 pages

The age of the Bible and Ancient Near East

Intellectual developments and highlights
ByJacqueline Vayntrub

chapter 3|12 pages

Comparative topics and emerging trends in biblical studies

ByAnne Knafl

chapter 5|13 pages

Politics and economics in the rabbinic period

ByGary G. Porton

chapter 6|13 pages

The rabbinic period

Intellectual developments and highlights
ByGary G. Porton

chapter 7|12 pages

The rabbinic period

Comparative topics and emerging trends
ByGary G. Porton

chapter 8|17 pages

The Middle Ages

Society, culture, demography 1
ByKatja Vehlow

chapter 9|11 pages

The Middle Ages

Economics and politics
ByKatja Vehlow

chapter 10|15 pages

Medieval intellectual developments and highlights

ByKatja Vehlow

chapter 11|11 pages

Middle Ages

Comparative topics and emerging trends
ByKatja Vehlow

chapter 12|21 pages

Jewish demography, society, and community in the early modern period

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 13|16 pages

Early modern economics and politics

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 14|15 pages

Early modern religious and intellectual developments

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 15|14 pages

Early modern comparative topics and emerging trends

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 16|14 pages

Modernity

Intellectual developments and highlights
ByAlan Levenson

chapter 17|22 pages

Modern Jewish society, politics, and culture

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 18|25 pages

Emerging and comparative trends in modern Jewish history

Beyond exceptionalism
ByMichal Rose Friedman

chapter 19|13 pages

Contemporary Jewish demography, society, and culture

Secularization and its discontents
ByEllen LeVee

chapter 20|15 pages

A new moment in time

The unraveling of the contemporary Jewish civic enterprise—contexts and comparisons
BySteven Windmueller

chapter 21|16 pages

Contemporary Jewish politics and historiography

The case of the BDS movement
ByEllen Cannon

part II|133 pages

Sources for Jewish history

chapter 22|8 pages

Archaeology, papyri, inscriptions

ByMary E. Buck

chapter 23|8 pages

Visual arts and Jewish historiography

ByJodi Kornfeld

chapter 24|17 pages

Material culture

ByLaura Leibman

chapter 25|6 pages

Rabbinic writings

ByVernon H. Kurtz

chapter 26|6 pages

The sources of Jewish philosophy

ByAaron W. Hughes

chapter 27|8 pages

Polemics and apologetics

ByKatja Vehlow

chapter 28|9 pages

The Genizah as a source for Jewish history

ByBenjamin Outhwaite

chapter 29|7 pages

Inquisition records

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 30|10 pages

Non-Jewish records

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 31|7 pages

Literature as a source for Jewish history

ByRoss Brann

chapter 32|7 pages

Sermons

ByVernon H. Kurtz

chapter 33|18 pages

Correspondence and letters

ByAsher Salah

chapter 34|8 pages

Autobiographies and memoirs

ByTali Berner

chapter 35|5 pages

Memorybooks

ByJoshua Shanes

chapter 36|7 pages

Jewish press and periodicals

ByJoshua Shanes

part III|162 pages

Historiography

chapter 37|13 pages

Social and cultural history

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 38|12 pages

Sociology and demography in modern Jewish history

Toward a unified history
ByAmos Morris-Reich

chapter 39|15 pages

Women’s and gender studies

Historiographical trends
ByJudith R. Baskin

chapter 40|10 pages

Historical materialism and Marxist history

ByLeonid Grinin

chapter 41|23 pages

Economic history

ByMark Koyama

chapter 42|16 pages

Jewish politics

History and historiographical implications
BySimon Rabinovitch

chapter 43|13 pages

Zionism and New Israeli History

ByRachel Fish

chapter 44|9 pages

Jewish history, intellectual history, and the history of ideas 1

ByCarsten Schapkow

chapter 45|13 pages

Postmodernism, Jewish history, and Jewish historiography

ByDean Phillip Bell

chapter 46|12 pages

Communications and media history

ByYoel Cohen

chapter 47|10 pages

Oral history

The case of Holocaust survivor testimonies
ByElliot Lefkovitz

chapter 48|14 pages

Public history and Jewish history

ByDean Phillip Bell

part IV|6 pages

Resources

chapter |4 pages

Timeline

ByDean Phillip Bell