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The Unbearable Lightness of Britain: Anglo-Jewish historiography and the anxiety of success
Author(s): Hart, Mitchell B.
Date: 2007
Topics: Jewish History, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This article explores the theme of a purported lack of seriousness or superficiality in Anglo-Jewish historiography. It begins with an analysis of the role this idea played as a catalyst for the first generation of organised or professionalising Anglo-Jewish historians. It argues that the idea of “success”—whether economic, political or social—has been a thorn in the side of British Jewish historians since the late nineteenth century, and that the conceptualisation of Anglo‐Jewish history has been to a large degree a response to an ambivalence about Anglo-Jewish “success”. After a consideration of early Anglo-Jewish historians, the article turns to the work of contemporary historians of Anglo-Jewry, and explores how this anxiety over success and seriousness has remained a spur, in both senses of the term: “Success” continues to be both an irritant and a catalyst for re‐interpretation.