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The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America
Winner of the 2020 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore
Honorable Mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize
The Jews’ Indian investigates the history of American Jewish relationships with Native Americans, both in the realm of cultural imagination and in face-to-face encounters. These two groups’ exchanges were numerous and diverse, proving at times harmonious when Jews’ and Natives people’s economic and social interests aligned, but discordant and fraught at other times. American Jews could be as exploitative of Native cultural, social, and political issues as other American settlers, and historian David Koffman argues that these interactions both unsettle and historicize the often triumphant consensus history of American Jewish life. Focusing on the ways Jewish class mobility and civic belonging were wrapped up in the dynamics of power and myth making that so severely impacted Native Americans, this books is provocative and timely, the first history to critically analyze Jewish participation in, and Jews’ grappling with the legacies of Native American history and the colonial project upon which America rests.
Honorable Mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize
The Jews’ Indian investigates the history of American Jewish relationships with Native Americans, both in the realm of cultural imagination and in face-to-face encounters. These two groups’ exchanges were numerous and diverse, proving at times harmonious when Jews’ and Natives people’s economic and social interests aligned, but discordant and fraught at other times. American Jews could be as exploitative of Native cultural, social, and political issues as other American settlers, and historian David Koffman argues that these interactions both unsettle and historicize the often triumphant consensus history of American Jewish life. Focusing on the ways Jewish class mobility and civic belonging were wrapped up in the dynamics of power and myth making that so severely impacted Native Americans, this books is provocative and timely, the first history to critically analyze Jewish participation in, and Jews’ grappling with the legacies of Native American history and the colonial project upon which America rests.
286 pages, Hardcover
Published February 8, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 5, 2023
It took me awhile to get into this academic book, but it started to come alive for me in the discussion of the 20th c advocacy work, which is of real interest to me. Was also fascinated to learn about the Jews leading role in trading posts and curios business. I found the early chapters hard to follow, as examples jumped around chronologically, and it gave me the impression, as a nonexpert, of possibly cherry picking cases to buttress the author's point. All in all, I enjoyed the book, but in no way an easy read.
April 11, 2019
Fascinating. Delivers on the premise. Accessible despite being rather academic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews