In this rich transnational history, Cornelia Aust traces Jewish Ashkenazi families as they moved across Europe and established new commercial and entrepreneurial networks as they went. Aust balances economic history with elaborate discussions of Jewish marriage patterns, women's economic activity, and intimate family life. Following their travels from Amsterdam to Warsaw, Aust opens a multifaceted window into the lives, relationships, and changing conditions of Jewish economic activity of a new Jewish mercantile elite.

About the Author

Cornelia Aust specializes in the history of Jewish communities in Poland and German speaking lands from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany.

Reviews

Aust's book is a significant addition to the field of Jewish economic history and to the study of eastern European Jewish history. It provides a new focus on mercantile elites beyond the Sephardic world and sets a high benchmark for future approaches to transregional studies.

* AJS Review *

Aust's meticulous research will hopefully lead not only to further developments in economic history along the lines she has laid down, but to deeper thinking across religious studies, among historians, ethicists, theologians, and anthropologists or sociologists of religion.

* Reading Religion *

The Jewish Economic Elite breaks new ground for historical research and should be of interest to historians working beyond Jewish history. It is rigorously researched and an original contribution to scholarship on a central topic of modern history.

* American Historical Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253032164
Author Cornelia Aust
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press