Customer Reviews

A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A fantastic book, full of ideas, that will be rewarding even for readers who know quite a bit about Jewish History. Most histories of the Jews in Europe, even those written by Jews, are written from a Eurocentric (Christian) viewpoint, looking at the Jews from the outside. This book is from a Jewish point of view, and makes no apologies. Does anyone remember what happened to the Jews in Europe, and not just during the Third Reich?

This is a demanding book, Vital likes long sentences, but doesn't waste words. Anyone who reads this book will be in a position to think more clearly about the position of the Jews in history and of minorities in the Western world. I wish every intelligent person would read this book.

I enjoyed this book in spite of the above review. In fact I was so enthralled I read it in a very short time. The reader should be warned that it is far from a complete history of the Jews in that time period. The author focuses almost entirely on political Jewish nationalism, Jewish socialism, and Zionism. I think that although most European Jews at the time were traditional or orthodox, those that assimilated were a very diverse lot politically, culturally, and socially. Really the book touches on only a small minority of Jews. Mr. Vital's focus and the book's title would have one think otherwise. With those caveats in mind I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed this book in spite of the above review. In fact I was so enthralled I read it in a very short time. The reader should be warned that it is far from a complete history of the Jews in that time period. The author focuses almost entirely on political Jewish nationalism, Jewish socialism, and Zionism. I think that although most European Jews at the time were traditional or orthodox, those that assimilated were a very diverse lot politically, culturally, and socially. Really the book touches on only a small minority of Jews. Mr. Vital's focus and the book's title would have one think otherwise. With those caveats in mind I highly recommend this book.

This is a thorough and detailed examination of Jewish history. In my view, this is the beginning of any serious analysis of the time period. The book which provides a through review of many original sources with many areas of research. For example, the Nuremberg laws were not a horrible group of laws afflicting a group, but a return to pre-Weimar laws.
The only criticism is that the review can be depressing as the writer chronicles various anti-Jewish laws andd oppression.

Frequently the Jews seem to be doing all right and then a problem arises, and a threat to expel them prompts the Jewish community to raise money and hope that their saving will prevent expulsion. The book is basically a strong argument for a Jewish state and demonstrates the many difficulties people had as second-class citizens.

I picked up Mr. Vital's book in the hope of finding in it a balanced, scholarly treatment of the much-misunderstood subject of Polish-Jewish relations from the late 19th century up to 1939. Unfortunately, "A People Apart" only repeats the old, ethnocentric, anti-Polish sentiments without even the slightest attempt at objectivity.

One of the most glaring examples of this partisan attitude is the fragment regarding the "pogrom" in Lvov in November 1918 (p.738). There exists a large literature on the subject in Polish, which presents a completely different picture; Mr. Vital supports his scathing condemnation of the Poles with a single quote from a propaganda brochure written by a Jewish author in French!

This selective attitude toward the sources is very visible in the bibliography. Although Mr. Vital's discussion of Polish Jewry takes several hundred pages, and the quoted publications number close to 500, I could find there just one(!) text in Polish, and even this one only tangentially related to the subject. If this was done because of the linguistic difficulties for the non-Polish reader, why quote dozens of works in Hebrew? In any case, Polish authors writing in French or English didn't fare much better (four or five references).

All in all, Mr. Vital's book, although rather monumental in scope, is quite parochial in perspective.

You have eliminated the review I submitted. You obviously don't want the truth. This book is interesting but it is written so badly and so ponderously that no one will want to make the effort to finish it, as I have.