Shulamit and Margarete: Power, Gender, and Religion in a Rural Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Studies in Central European Histories) (No. 32) [Hardcover]

Claudia Ulbrich (Author), Thomas Dunlap (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0391041452 | ISBN-13: 978-0391041455 | Publication Date: June 2004

Shulamit and Margarete takes a microhistorical look at a small village on the border of Germany and France in the eighteenth century. Drawing on the rich source material of the village, it casts a searching light on the boundaries created by language, states, religions, cultures, sex, and gender. By writing the history of the village from multiple perspectives, the author is able to uncover fascinating artefacts of a cultural contact between Christians and Jews, and to gain insights into the agency and experiences of women in rural society. The book is enhanced by a variety of sources and illustrations relating to Jewish history, such as the last will of Abraham Levy and the previously unknown portraits of Fromette Levy and Bernard Lipmann.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'This exceptionally interesting book uses micro-level evidence to address big questions the position of women, the nature of community, and the complex interplay of culture and institutions. Anyone interested in women's history will find that this book does not have a dull page in it: the empirical evidence is extraordinarily interesting in itself, but on top of that it is constantly being placed in the wider context of what was happening in other parts of Europe and the general questions it helps us answer. The author's treatment of the complex, many-stranded, and ambiguous relationships between Catholics and Jews, men and women, insiders and outsiders in this eighteenth-century village is delicate and sure in touch a model of its kind. Above all, this book is extraordinarily original and impressive in laying bare the coercive realities behind communal institutions and strategies especially in their effects on women, minorities, and outsiders more thoroughly and vividly than any other study I know.'
Sheilagh Ogilvie, University of Cambridge, 2004.
"'This fascinating and richly documented study takes us into the heart of an 18th-century village of Christians and Jews in Germany on the border of France. From her wide-ranging archival harvest, Claudia Ulbrich gives us a new view of the rhythms and conflicts of village life and the structures and strategies of families--all the more insightful because Jews and Catholics are placed side by side. Vivid, humane, and well-translated, Shulamith and Margarete "is microhistory and gender history at their significant best.'Natalie Zemon Davis, University of Toronto, author of "The Return of Martin Guerre and "Women on the Margins: ThreeSeventeenth-Century Lives.

About the Author

Claudia Ulbrich, Dr. phil. (1977) University of Saarbrucken, is professor of modern history at the Free University of Berlin. She has published extensively on the history of rural societies in the early modern period and on gender history. She is co-editor of L'Homme. Zeitschrift fur Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0391041452
• ISBN-13: 978-0391041455
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,539,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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