The Jewish Dark Continent by Nathaniel Deutsch
The Jews of the Pale of Settlement created a distinctive way of life little known beyond its borders. Just before World War I, a socialist revolutionary named An-sky and his team collected jokes, recorded songs, took thousands of photographs, and created a revealing questionnaire in Yiddish, translated here in its entirety for the first time.
A century ago, The Jewish Ethnographic Program gave us the culture of the shtetl at such close range and in such extraordinary detail that we can see the blood spot on the conjugal sheet and read the petitionary notes on the Zaddik's graveThanks to Nathaniel Deutsch, An-sky's 'dark continent' is revealed to us as a living, luminous place. -- David Roskies, author of Yiddishlands: A Memoir
The Jewish Dark Continent is much more than the story of an amazing individual and an inspired, if quixotic, project of collaborative research. It is a genuine voyage of exploration, a work of erudition and vision that restores complexity, paradox, and possibility to the Jewish Pale of Settlement. Brilliant and genre-bending. -- James Clifford, author of The Predicament of Culture and Routes
A highly original work--a superb translation, an erudite, lively annotation, above all an extended conversation with one of late imperial Russian Jewry's most intriguing minds. -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Imagining Russian Jewry
For the first time, a rare and precious document, as lost as the world it was intended to document, comes to light. World War I halted the ethnographic expedition that would have provided the answers to this unique questionnaire about all aspects of the Jewish life cycle in Eastern Europe. Thanks to Nathaniel Deutsch's fine translation and erudite commentary these tantalizing questions--without answers--reveal what those who formulated them expected to find. Truly a treasure. -- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, editor of Writing a Modern Jewish History and co-author of They Called Me Mayer July
[A] perceptive and intriguing work. -- David Wolpe * Weekly Standard *
The Jewish Dark Continent is much more than the story of an amazing individual and an inspired, if quixotic, project of collaborative research. It is a genuine voyage of exploration, a work of erudition and vision that restores complexity, paradox, and possibility to the Jewish Pale of Settlement. Brilliant and genre-bending. -- James Clifford, author of The Predicament of Culture and Routes
A highly original work--a superb translation, an erudite, lively annotation, above all an extended conversation with one of late imperial Russian Jewry's most intriguing minds. -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Imagining Russian Jewry
For the first time, a rare and precious document, as lost as the world it was intended to document, comes to light. World War I halted the ethnographic expedition that would have provided the answers to this unique questionnaire about all aspects of the Jewish life cycle in Eastern Europe. Thanks to Nathaniel Deutsch's fine translation and erudite commentary these tantalizing questions--without answers--reveal what those who formulated them expected to find. Truly a treasure. -- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, editor of Writing a Modern Jewish History and co-author of They Called Me Mayer July
[A] perceptive and intriguing work. -- David Wolpe * Weekly Standard *
Nathaniel Deutsch is Professor of Literature and History at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780674047280 |
| ISBN 10 | 0674047281 |
| Title | The Jewish Dark Continent |
| Author | Nathaniel Deutsch |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| Year published | 2011-11-29 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Prizes | Winner of Jordan Schnitzer Book Award 2013, Nominated for George L. Mosse Prize 2012, Nominated for Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize 2011, Nominated for USC Book Prize in Literary and Cultural Studies 2012, Nominated for Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History 2012, Nominated for Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion 2012, Nominated for Mary Douglas Prize 2012, Nominated for Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies 2012, Nominated for Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize 2012, Nominated for Allan Sharlin Memorial Award 2012 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |