Publisher Description

For three hundred years the ghetto defined Jewish culture in the late medieval and early modern period in Western Europe. In the nineteenth-century it was a free-floating concept which travelled to Eastern Europe and the United States. Eastern European

Author Biography

Bryan Cheyette is Chair in Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Reading, and a Fellow of the English Association. He has authored or edited eleven books and is a Series Editor for Bloomsbury (New Horizons in Contemporary Writing). He has lectured widely throughout the United States and Europe and has held visiting positions at Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds fellowships at theuniversities of Leeds, Southampton and Birkbeck College, London. He reviews fiction for several British newspapers, and has published nearly one hundred reviews on film, history, and fiction for the TimesLiterary Supplement.

Table of Contents

Preface and AcknowledgmentsList of illustrations1: Why ghetto?2: The age of the ghetto3: Ghettos of the Imagination4: Nazism and the ghetto5: The americanization of the ghetto6: Global ghettosReferencesFurther readingPublishers acknowledgements

Review

This overview of the changing meaning of the ghetto across the globe and through time is highly recommended for readers new to the subject, as well as for those who wish to deepen their knowledge through its excellent bibliography. * Laura Vaughan, LSE Review of Books *
Bryan Cheyette has vigorously met the challenge of looking at ghettos in history and literature from 16th-century Italy to present-day America. * David Abulafia, Jewish Renaissance *
Revealing new details and insights on almost every page. * Howard Cooper, Jewish Chronicle *

Long Description

For three hundred years the ghetto defined Jewish culture in the late medieval and early modern period in Western Europe. In the nineteenth-century it was a free-floating concept which travelled to Eastern Europe and the United States. Eastern European

Review Quote

"Bryan Cheyette demonstrates in his deftly written historical and literary survey of the multiple ways in which this term (in the ghetto) has been used over the centuries ... one of the strengths of this short book is the way in which Cheyette illuminates the ways in which, in every historical period, the understanding of what it meant to live in a ghetto was a dynamic, shifting phenomenon." -- Howard Cooper, Jewish Chronicle

Feature

Covers the varying histories of different kinds of ghettos - urban, racial, and colonialConsiders the identity of the people in ghettos, and why and how ghetto communities are formedAnalyses the appearance of ghettos in popular cultureShows how both the experience of ghettoization and the memory of ghettos impacts people living in themPart of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

New Feature

Preface and Acknowledgments List of illustrations 1. Why ghetto? 2. The age of the ghetto 3. Ghettos of the Imagination 4. Nazism and the ghetto 5. The americanization of the ghetto 6. Global ghettos References Further reading Publishers acknowledgements

Details