Book Description

This book investigates the place and meaning of consumption in Jewish lives and the roles Jews played in different consumer cultures in modern Europe and North America. Drawing on innovative, original research into this new and challenging field, the volume brings Jewish studies and the history and theory of consumer culture into dialogue with each other. Its chapters explore Jewish businesspeople's development of niche commercial practices in several transnational contexts; the imagining, marketing, and realization of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine through consumer goods and strategies; associations between Jews, luxury, and gender in multiple contexts; and the political dimensions of consumer choice. Together the essays in this volume show how the study of consumption enriches our understanding of modern Jewish history and how a focus on consumer goods and practices illuminates the study of Jewish religious observance, ethnic identities, gender formations, and immigrant trajectories across the globe. Paul Lerner is Professor of History at the University of Southern California, USA, where he directs the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies. He is the author of The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880-1940. Uwe Spiekermann (uwe-spiekermann.com) is Privatdozent at the University of Göttingen, Germany. His research interests include the history of consumption, retailing, nutrition, and knowledge. The most recent of his 13 books is Künstliche Kost: Ernährung in Deutschland, 1840 bis heute. Anne Schenderlein is Managing Director of the Dahlem Humanities Center at Freie Universität Berlin. Before that, she was a research fellow at the German Historical Institute Washington. She is the author of Germany on their Minds? German Jewish Refugees and their Relationships to Germany, 1933-1938. .