Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe
Derek Penslar
Abstract
Throughout much of European history, Jews have been strongly associated with commerce and the money trade, rendered both visible and vulnerable, like Shakespeare's Shylock, by their economic distinctiveness. This book tells the story of Jewish perceptions of this economic difference and its effects on modern Jewish identity. It explains how Jews in modern Europe developed the notion of a distinct “Jewish economic man,” an image that grew ever-more complex and nuanced between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
Keywords: European history, Jews, commerce, money, Jewish perceptions, Jewish identity, Europe, economic distinctiveness
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2001 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520225909 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520225909.001.0001 |
