JS 560 / HIST 585: Approaches to Jewish History

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN READING

What are the particular sources the historian uses to make his or her argument? How does this type of evidence effect the interpretation?

How does each historian understand the terms "Jews," "Judaism" and "Jewishness"? To what extent does the author limit his or her scope to the Jewish sphere? If the author is writing about the Jews of a particular country, to what extent does the history of that country come into play? How do these choices effect the interpretation?

What is the analytical framework? Is it political history? Religious history? Intellectual history? Social history? Cultural history? How do these different approaches lend themselves to different types of historical questions and assumptions?

Has the writer borrowed any methodologies from disciplines other than history (i.e. anthropology, literary theory)? How do these approaches help shape the analysis?

Where does the author's view of Jewish history place him or her vis a vis the other historians we have studied? Do you detect the influence of previous historians on his or her writing? Is he or she revising a well-accepted thesis?

How may the author's own social setting (be it pre-emancipation Germany, nineteenth-century Russia, twentieth century America) have shaped and influenced his or her scholarly concerns?

What unstated concerns or commitments do you detect in the scholar's work?