Modern British Jewry

This is an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Jews of Britain over the last century and a half. Geoffrey Alderman examines the social structure and economic base of Jewish communities in Victorian England and traces the struggle for emancipation. He analyses the effects of the large-scale immigration of the early twentieth century and charts the development of the Zionist movement in Britain. Professor Alderman takes his account up to the present day, exploring the concerns...
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This is an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Jews of Britain over the last century and a half. Geoffrey Alderman examines the social structure and economic base of Jewish communities in Victorian England and traces the struggle for emancipation. He analyses the effects of the large-scale immigration of the early twentieth century and charts the development of the Zionist movement in Britain. Professor Alderman takes his account up to the present day, exploring the concerns and self-image of contemporary Jewish communities in Britain and their place in an increasingly pluralist society. Based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, Modern British Jewry is a political, social, and intellectual history of British Jews which is critical, scholarly, and immensely readable. For this paperback edition Professor Alderman has added a new chapter examining contemporary themes and issues. REVIEWS `This is the definitive history of modern British Jewry. As such it deserves a wide reading', Choice `Written in a lively, engaging manner . . . it includes the first substantial treatment of events and trends in the interwar period and the half-century since World War II', American Historical Review `should appeal to a wide audience at different levels . . . it deserves the attention of most scholars and a space on most college library shelves', History `an important synthetic history of British Jewry . . . Alderman is a leader among the group of scholars who are now scrutinizing the experience of British Jews in the post-1945 era', Albion `an engrossing book, lucidly written, scrupulously annotated', New Statesman and Society `Alderman is an extraordinarily intelligent, thorough and original historian and an excellent writer', Australian Jewish News `More than a standard work, this is an exceptional work, a classic of its genre. Filled equally with drama and information, it puts the Jews firmly into the mainstream of British history', Times Higher Education Supplement `Professor Geoffrey Alderman writes with authority, his industry is impressive, his research is wide-ranging and thorough. He makes some startling revelations . . . Serious students of Jewish history will have serious arguments with it; but they will treasure it for its wealth of detail, its candour, and the light it throws on obscure corners of Jewish life' Jewish Chronicle `the first honest, scholarly study of modern Anglo-Jewry.' Simon Denison, Sunday Telegraph `highly readable ... His analysis of the 19th-century Jewish party affiliations is fascinating.' The Times `a detailed account of Jewish communal activities and quarrels.' Martin Gilbert, The Guardian 'Professor Alderman has resolved to 'expose the new reality' of Jewish history 'warts and all'' The Spectator'This is by far the best book on its subject - immensely informed, thoroughly researched, supremely accurate, intelligently organized, and, in its discussion of communal rifts, admirably free of partisan bias. Alderman's book is refreshingly iconoclastic in its rejection of an old style of communal history ... briskly unapologetic work.' Times Literary Supplement