"Prophets of the Past" is the first book to examine in depth how
modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael
Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group
has used their shared history for so many different ideological and
political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master
narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly
study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern
European approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of
Polish-Jewish historians, and the short-lived efforts of
Soviet-Jewish historians; to the work of British and American
scholars such as Cecil Roth and Salo Baron; and to Zionist and
post-Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. He also unravels
the distortions of Jewish history writing, including antisemitic
Nazi research into the "Jewish question," the Soviet portrayal of
Jewish history as class struggle, and Orthodox Jewish
interpretations of history as divinely inspired.
History proved to be a uniquely powerful weapon for modern
Jewish scholars during a period when they had no nation or army to
fight for their ideological and political objectives, whether the
goal was Jewish emancipation, diasporic autonomy, or the creation
of a Jewish state. As Brenner demonstrates in this illuminating and
incisive book, these historians often found legitimacy for these
struggles in the Jewish past.
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