Ritual Murder in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Beyond: New Histories of an Old Accusation - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253025818 ISBN 13: 9780253025814

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2017

Synopsis

This innovative reassessment of ritual murder accusations brings together scholars working in history, folklore, ethnography, and literature. Favoring dynamic explanations of the mechanisms, evolution, popular appeal, and responses to the blood libel, the essays rigorously engage with the larger social and cultural worlds that made these phenomena possible. In doing so, the book helps to explain why blood libel accusations continued to spread in Europe even after modernization seemingly made them obsolete. Drawing on untapped and unconventional historical sources, the collection explores a range of intriguing topics: popular belief and scientific knowledge; the connections between antisemitism, prejudice, and violence; the rule of law versus the power of rumors; the politics of memory; and humanitarian intervention on a global scale.

About this title

Review:

"While the topic was not exactly novel to me, I enjoyed reading this book and I was constantly learning from the significant new information and fresh insights from the authors' analyses." Shaul Stampfer, Hebrew University"

"This important contribution to our understanding of the evolution of ritual murder charges in Eastern Europe brings together a number of innovative studies on the topic, several of which could become standard reading on the subject." Glenn Dynner, Sarah Lawrence College"

"This important contribution to our understanding of the evolution of ritual murder charges in Eastern Europe brings together a number of innovative studies on the topic, several of which could become standard reading on the subject." --Glenn Dynner, Sarah Lawrence College

"While the topic was not exactly novel to me, I enjoyed reading this book and I was constantly learning from the significant new information and fresh insights from the authors' analyses." --Shaul Stampfer, Hebrew University

-While the topic was not exactly novel to me, I enjoyed reading this book and I was constantly learning from the significant new information and fresh insights from the authors' analyses.- --Shaul Stampfer, Hebrew University

-This important contribution to our understanding of the evolution of ritual murder charges in Eastern Europe brings together a number of innovative studies on the topic, several of which could become standard reading on the subject.- --Glenn Dynner, Sarah Lawrence College

From the Author:

Eugene M. Avrutin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen is Professor of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Robert Weinberg is Professor of History at Swarthmore College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0253025818
• ISBN 13: 9780253025814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 294
• Editor: Avrutin Eugene M., Dekel-Chen Jonathan, Weinberg Robert