The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933 [Paperback]

Amos Elon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

In this important work of historical restoration, Amos Elon shows how a persecuted clan of cattle dealers and wandering peddlers was transformed into a stunningly successful community of writers, philosophers, scientists, tycoons, and activists. In engaging, brilliantly etched portraits of Moses Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Hannah Arendt, and many others, Elon traces how a small minority came to be perceived as a deadly threat
to German national integrity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant, far-reaching, passionate. . .sweeping and marvelously detailed. . .finely, intimately, movingly drawn. . . a book for the ages." --The New York Times

"[Elon] is a master of the telling anecdote. . ..One should be grateful for what Elon has done." --Los Angeles Times

"A work packed with beautifully sketched portraits, and constructed with a practiced eye for memorable, well-executed anecdotes." --The New York Times Book Review

"Impressive. . .Could hardly be improved upon." --The New York Review of Books

"If there is one book Americans should read this winter, it is Amos Elon's The Pity of It All--a meticulous and wrenching history of a people in a place at a moment in time that bears urgently upon our own." --Joan Didion, author of Political Fictions

About the Author

Amos Elon is the author of eight widely praised books including Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild, and the New York Times bestseller Israelis: Founders and Sons. He was a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review of Books. He passed away in 2009.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Picador; Edition Unstated edition (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312422814
• ISBN-13: 978-0312422813
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and engaging January 28, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I am surprised to be the first reviewer of this book. Although the title may suggest that the book is narrow and scholarly, nothing could be further from the truth. By focusing on Germany in the Enlightment and modern periods, Elon has written a microcosm of the history of anti-Semitism and of Europe. Using well-known German Jews, like Heine, and lesser-known figures, Elon brings these 200 years of history to life. He is historically scrupulous, but writes with the ease of a novelist. It's a good read that's good for you.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AN OUTSTANDING WORK OF UNIVERSAL SCOPE November 20, 2005

By Alexander Lerman

Format:Paperback

This is one of the finest works of history, in any subject, I have ever read.

Elon transcends "Jewish History" to write a book that is indeed about Jews in Europe - and is thus about Europe, European civilization, and the enlightenment in general. Prior to reading this work, I had no idea of the significance of Napoleon to the Jewish people, nor the horrific conditions under which most Jews lived. The heavy representation of Jews among progressive reformers and visionary intellectuals reflects the yearnings of the elite of an opressed and ostrasized class - and their vital contribution. Anti-semitism co-mingled with economic and political reactionary views in response to both Jewisch emancipation, and social, cultural and political progressive movements in Europe - culminating in the madness and obscenity of the holocaust. Elon traces with regret the degree that Hitler confirmed and gave strength to Jewish sepratists, who viewed the assimilationist and universalist yearnings of generations of European Jews as racial and religious treason.

Elon is a masterful yet unobtrusive historian. Reading his book is like spending a term with a great professor, under whose tutalage the world becomes larger, sadder, and more deeply intelligible. Elon's work itself stands as a statement that the Holocaust and the Nazi movement did not destroy humanity's progressive vision

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of the theological-political problem. June 7, 2008

By greg taylor VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

There are many strengths to this book- one of the main strengths is the variety of uses that it has. It's obvious purpose is to relate the history of German Jews from the rise of the Enlightenment to the rise to power of the Nazi party. But it serves other purposes as well. I came to it for an understanding of the intellectual background of both Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt. It could serve as background reading for anyone interested in Einstein, Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer, Freud, Adler, Fromm, Marcuse, Mannheim, Popper, Bernstein, Cassirer, Schoenberg, Husserl, Weill, among other German-Jewish intellectuals to numerous to mention. Which brings me to my third purpose. I have never read anything that made me realize just how badly Germany damaged itself intellectually during the rise of the Nazis. It serves as the primary example of politically ripping your heart out because your brain commands it. Who knows what the country could have become if it had embraced it Jewish citizens? Finally, for me, this book makes me understand why Zionism became such a political force. At some point, when you are treated like the Jewish citizens of Germany were, what else can you do? Elon makes it clear that their suffering began long before the twentieth century.
I want to talk about Elon's methodology. His book is basically a series of well chosen capsule biographies of prominent German Jews whose lives and struggles for emancipation and assimilation serve as to tell the stories of all German Jews. His focuses on people like Moses Mendelssohn, Rahel Varnhagen, Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Borne, Ludwig Bamberger, Gershon Bleichroder and Walter Rathenau. Along with this main biographies are several dozens of shorter ones. Elon then surrounds these stories with a certain amount of sociological history (two of his favorite statistics are to look at the rate of conversions from Judaism to Christianity and the rate of intermarriage). He tries to relate those stats to larger historical events. Finally, he also uses a bit of cultural history,e.g., he sees Goethe's idea of Bildung as having an even larger impact on German Jews than on the rest of the German population.
This methodological approach to his story has some drawbacks. Non-intellectual and/or lower class German Jews remain in the background in Elon's book. I am not sure how this could be avoided. There may be some sort of historical record that would tell us more about this part of the population but it is hard to imagine what that record would be. It is also easy to imagine that life for the poorer and less literate parts of the German Jewish population would have been even worse. Most careers were closed to them, all civil and political rights were denied to them and many times, entire cities or districts were closed to them. In most cities they lived in ghettos and were not allowed to go out into the rest of the city on Sundays or Christian holidays.
Elon also makes it clear that in many ways, Germany was one of the most liberal countries toward its Jewish citizens. I found myself sometimes reading this book wondering when the revolution was going to start. As I said earlier, reading this book makes the appeal of Zionism easy to understand.
I have a few other minor laments about Elon's book. I would have appreciated much more of a history of both Zionism and reform Judaism within the context of his history. I would also have learned from a history of how the understanding of the galut changed over time. But this is a minor quibble. Elon's books fulfills its own purpose and many other purposes magnificantly. There are other books that can tell the story of the missing pieces.
I came to this book from my reading of Strauss. It makes me appreciate Strauss's ideas about the theological-political problem so much more. Strauss basically used the place of the Jewish citizen within a liberal polity as his basic metaphor for the challenge of the other to a community/state. He also saw it as a metaphor for the role of the philosopher in the community/state. In both cases, it stands for an outsider who can never be other than an outsider. Strauss felt that this issue tears at the core of the liberal state. It is one that we can never run from and must always face with all our wisdom and humanity. Reading Elon argues strongly that Strauss may have been right. But mostly, reading Elon leave you with a sense of how much all of us have lost from what happened to the Jewish population of Europe during the thirties and forties. The Pity of It All is right.