Capitalism and the Jews

De: Jerry Z. Muller

Narrado por: Jonathan Davis

Duración: 5 h y 32 m

Resumen del Editor

The unique historical relationship between capitalism and the Jews is crucial to understanding modern European and Jewish history. But the subject has been addressed less often by mainstream historians than by anti-Semites or apologists. In this book Jerry Muller, a leading historian of capitalism, separates myth from reality to explain why the Jewish experience with capitalism has been so important and complex - and so ambivalent.

Drawing on economic, social, political, and intellectual history from medieval Europe through contemporary America and Israel, Capitalism and the Jews examines the ways in which thinking about capitalism and thinking about the Jews have gone hand in hand in European thought, and why anticapitalism and anti-Semitism have frequently been linked. The book explains why Jews have tended to be disproportionately successful in capitalist societies, but also why Jews have numbered among the fiercest anticapitalists and Communists. The book shows how the ancient idea that money was unproductive led from the stigmatization of usury and the Jews to the stigmatization of finance and, ultimately, in Marxism, the stigmatization of capitalism itself. Finally, the book traces how the traditional status of the Jews as a diasporic merchant minority both encouraged their economic success and made them particularly vulnerable to the ethnic nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Providing a fresh look at an important but frequently misunderstood subject, Capitalism and the Jews will interest anyone who wants to understand the Jewish role in the development of capitalism, the role of capitalism in the modern fate of the Jews, or the ways in which the story of capitalism and the Jews has affected the history of Europe and beyond, from the medieval period to our own.

©2010 Princeton University Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Muller provides a refreshingly frank account of the major role of Jews on both sides of capitalism's ideological barricades. His brisk and lively book is a welcome sign that historians are moving beyond a stale preoccupation with challenging stereotypes, and are now more willing to engage candidly and directly with the economic dimension of Jewish history." (Jewish Quarterly)

"Muller is keen to rescue from apologists, ideologues, and anti-Semites the exploration of what he describes as the Jews' 'special relationship' with capitalism.... This book is both scholarly and speculative, analysing the sociology and the anti-Semitic pseudo-sociology of the Jews' participation in capitalism. It will not be the last word on the subject, but it is a genuine contribution to it." (New Statesman)

"A work of intellectual history.... Muller is acutely aware of the irony that Jews have been attacked sometimes for being the quintessence of capitalism and sometimes for being the quintessence of anticapitalism. The merit of his book is that it takes seriously the need to understand how historical circumstances bring this about." (Moment magazine)

Clear and informative collection of essays

An interesting collection of essays about European Jewry and the rise of modern capitalism. It is neither an economic history of capitalism, nor a history of European Jewry, but it does capture snapshots of both. Covering the middle ages up through the twentieth century, Muller’s essays examine the role of antisemitism and how that affected the relationship of Jews to modern capitalism. He argues that earlier religious antisemitism (large rooted in Christian theology) lead to the restriction of employment by Jews to areas of trade and commerce; and then as modern capitalism grows, the Jewish overrepresentation in trade and commerce leads to new forms of antisemitism. Muller also explores the Jewish involvement in the major social movements of nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. He shows that Jews were overrepresented in most of these movements, not just socialism and communism as is the common stereotype. Indeed, Muller argues, that only a small minority of European Jews were ever supportive of the socialist movements. And in the movements, Jews were also always a small minority. But Jewish involvement was conspicuous and tended to reinforce older antisemitic stereotypes, and so these newer antisemitic tropes develop. In one of the more tragic ironies of the twentieth century is that Jews were regarded, by the socialist left, as being evil, rapacious capitalists, but then, on the right, as being the leaders of communist vanguard. Muller also looks at the rise of nationalism and how Zionism fits into that both as a form of nationalism and a response to European nationalism.

All the essays are clear and informative, exploring the contours of this history in interesting and often novel ways. The analysis is at a more general level; a ten-thousand-foot view if you will, rather than getting into any great detail. As such, this is a good starting place, rather than the only or final account, for understanding the complex relationships of capitalism, socialism, antisemitism, and Zionism.