Jews Welcome Coffee: Tradition and Innovation in Early Modern Germany (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.79 (858 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1611682460 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 190 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-07-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Tracing the introduction of coffee into Europe, Robert Liberles challenges long-held assumptions about early modern Jewish history and shows how the Jews harnessed an innovation that enriched their personal, religious, social, and economic lives. Focusing on Jewish society in Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and using coffee as a key to understanding social change, Liberles analyzes German rabbinic rulings on coffee, Jewish consumption patterns, the commercial importance of coffee for various social strata, differences based on gender, and the efforts of German authorities to restrict Jewish trade in coffee, as well as the integration of Jews into society.
“Liberles teases out unique insights into the financial, religious, and social structure of the Jewish community of early modern Germany through their ties to coffee. But, the greatest benefit of reading his book is realizing how a single edible can be treated as a lens for historical research, proving: ‘Ideas alone do not change history,’ sometimes food does.”—Forward
Good book, bad packing The book is an interesting and amusing survey of early modern responses (and responsa) to coffee, especially as they involved Jews in Germany. Unfortunately, for shipping it was shrink-wrapped violently into a sort of heavy-duty plastic skin, and it arrived with a two-inch wave in the upper right corner. It was a gift for my favorite coffee addict, so it was too bad it arrived damaged. Lousy packing method.