Explorations in Jewish Historical Experience: The Civilizational Dimension

Leiden: Brill, 2004. First edition. Hardcover. Fine. Octavo. xiv, 323, (3)pp. Index and selected bibliographies. Dark over light purple boards, spine lettered in white. A fine, as new copy

This volume brings together several of Prof. S.N. Eisenstadt's essays written over the years on Jewish history and identity. The major argument of the essays follows the Weberian view of Jewish historical experience as that of a distinct civilization, as a distinct Great Religion, the first monotheistic civilization - without, however, accepting many of Weber's concrete analyses. The core of the argument that underlies these essays is, that the best way to understand the Jewish experience is to look on Jews not just as a religious or ethnic group, nation or "people", although they have been all of these, but as bearers of a distinct civilization. These essays examine the historical experience of the Jewish people and communities in ancient medieval and modern times in the framework of such civilizational analysis in which special attention is given to the analysis of Israeli society and to the continual changing place of Israel in a central component of Jewish identity, in line with the different historical experience and collective agendas of the Jewish communities. (Publisher)

Contents: Sect. I.; Jewish historical experience in the civilizational framework --; Ch. 1.; format of Jewish history : some reflections on Weber's ancient Judaism --; Ch. 2.; Jewish historical experience in the framework of comparative universal history --; Ch. 3.; Jewish experience in the modern era --; Sect. II.; Zionist movement and Israeli society --; Ch. 4.; Did Zionism bring the Jews back to history? --; Ch. 5.; Change and continuity in Israeli society --; Ch. 6.; Mahapakh of 1977 and the transformation of Israeli society --; Ch. 7.; Israeli identity : problems in the development of the collective identity of an ideological society --; Ch. 8.; Israeli politics and the Jewish political tradition : principled political anarchism and the rule of the court --; Ch. 9.; Two new democracies, the U.S. and Israel : some comparative remarks --; Sect. III.; Jewish experience in the contemporary era --; Ch. 10.; American Jewish experience and American pluralism : a comparative perspective --; Ch. 11.; Pattern of contemporary Jewish identity --; Ch. 12.; Jewish experience in the contemporary era : some concluding observations.

Volume 3 of the Brill series, "Jewish Identities in a Changing World."