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The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492

Online ISBN:
9781400842483
Print ISBN:
9780691144870
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Book

The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492

Maristella Botticini,
Maristella Botticini
Bocconi University
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Zvi Eckstein
Zvi Eckstein
Tel Aviv University
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Published:
5 August 2012
Online ISBN:
9781400842483
Print ISBN:
9780691144870
Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Abstract

In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492, the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? This book presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. The book offers a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.

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