The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, 2012 M08 5 - 344 pages

How the Jewish people went from farmers to merchants

In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? The Chosen Few presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.

 

Selected pages

Contents

INTRODUCTION
1
How Many Jews Were There and Where and How Did They Live?
11
CHAPTER 2 Were the Jews a Persecuted Minority?
52
CHAPTER 3 The People of the Book 200 BCE200 CE
66
CHAPTER 4 The Economics of Hebrew Literacy in a World of Farmers
80
The Chosen Few
95
CHAPTER 6 From Farmers to Merchants 7501150
124
CHAPTER 7 Educated Wandering Jews 8001250
153
CHAPTER 8 Segregation or Choice? From Merchants to Moneylenders 10001500
201
Can Judaism Survive When Trade and Urban Economies Collapse?
248
Open Questions
261
Appendix
274
Bibliography
287
Index
317
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492
Maristella Botticini,Zvi Eckstein
Limited preview - 2012
The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492
Maristella Botticini,Zvi Eckstein
Limited preview - 2014

Common terms and phrases

academies Ages agriculture became become Benjamin Byzantine caliphates centers central century chap chapter Christian cities convert Córdoba costs crafts decline documents early earnings economic Egypt Empire engaged England established estimates Europe evidence explain farmers farming fathers figures France Germany given Hebrew households Iberian Peninsula important interest invest Italy Jerusalem Jewish communities Jewish farmers Jewish population Jewry Jews Judaism Land of Israel late later laws learning lenders lending letters literacy literacy and education literate living loans locations major medieval merchants Mesopotamia Middle East migrations million moneylending Mongol Muslim norm North Africa occupations percent period Persia primary prominent Rabbi regions religion religious remained Roman rule scholars Second settled skilled sons sources southern specialized synagogue Syria Talmud Temple theory third tion Torah towns trade urban western Europe written

About the author (2012)

Maristella Botticini is professor of economics, as well as director and fellow of the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER), at Bocconi University in Milan. Zvi Eckstein is dean of the Arison School of Business and of the School of Economics at IDC Herzliya in Herzliya, Israel; Judith C. and William G. Bollinger visiting professor in the Finance Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and emeritus professor in the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492
Volume 42 of The Princeton Economic History of the Western World
AuthorsMaristella Botticini, Zvi Eckstein
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2012
ISBN1400842484, 9781400842483
Length344 pages
  
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