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

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, 2012 - 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
Chapter
9
A World of Farmers
11
Chapter
18
Chapter 2
52
The People of the Book 200 BCE 200 CE
66
The Economics of Hebrew Literacy in a World of Farmers
80
Chapter 5
95
Chapter 7
153
Chapter 8
201
Urban Economies Collapse? The Mongol Conquest of the Muslim Middle East
248
Why Judaism Cannot Survive When Trade and Urban Economies
258
Appendix
274
Bibliography
287
Index
317
Copyright

Chapter 6
124

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 - 2012

Common terms and phrases

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

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492
THE PRINCETON ECONOMIC HISTORY
Volume 42 of The Princeton Economic History of the Western World
AuthorsMaristella Botticini, Zvi Eckstein
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2012
ISBN0691163510, 9780691163512
Length344 pages
  
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