Disraeli's Jewishness

by Tony Kushner (Editor), Todd M. Endelman (Editor)

Overview

The subject of Disraeli's jewishness was one that obsessed contemporaries but was subsequently downplayed by historians and others until very recently. The essays in this volume provide a new perspective, stressing the importance of Disraeli's Jewishness in the construction of his personality, ideology and politics as well as in responses to him. This collection is an important addition not only to the understanding of Disraeli but also to the workings of race relations in Liberal Victorian Britain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780853033738
Publisher:	Vallentine Mitchell Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2002
Series:	Parkes-Wiener Series on Jewish Studies Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	vii
	Notes on Contributors	xi
	Acknowledgements	xiii
	Introduction	1
Part 1	Self-Constructions
	Benjamin Disraeli and the Myth of Sephardi Superiority	23
	'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin': Jewish Perspectives in Disraeli's Fiction	40
	Manly Jews: Disraeli, Jewishness and Gender	62
Part 2	Responses to Disraeli's Jewishness
	'Ben JuJu': Representations of Disraeli's Jewishness in the Victorian Political Cartoon	105
	Disraeli, the Rothschilds and Antisemitism	162
	'Jew Feelings' and Realpolitik: Disraeli and the Making of Foreign and Imperial Policy	180
Part 3	Afterlife
	One of Us? Contesting Disraeli's Jewishness and Englishness in the Twentieth Century	201
	Index	263

Editorial Reviews

Seven academics from the U.S. and UK contribute eight essays, including amended versions of some of the essays published in the Fall 1996 issue of the journal , plus new essays written specifically for this book. They seek to restore the Jewish dimension to Disraeli's life and work, while also exploring some new aspects of the topic. These include gender concerns in Disraeli's fictional work, an examination of Disraeli's novels in the context of romanticism and the history of nineteenth-century taste, the myth of Sephardi superiority, an examination of why Disraeli was a target of antisemitic abuse, and ways in which his Jewishness was constructed and contested in the UK and U.S. during the twentieth century. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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