The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

How an antisemitic legend gave voice to widespread fears surrounding the expansion of private credit in Western capitalism The Promise and Peril of Credit takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in the West's centuries-long struggle to define the place of private finance in the social and political order. It does so through the lens of a pers

Reviews

"Winner of the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, American Philosophical Society"
"Winner of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History and Culture, Association for Jewish Studies"
"[Trivellato] deftly demonstrates how dangerous such stories [about credit] can beand how widespread their effects."---Rebecca L. Spang, Times Literary Supplement
"Extraordinary. . . . Trivellatos excellent book shows the power and the necessity of credible history to fight ever corrosive and dangerous legends alive and thriving in our own technologically-advanced yet troubled times."---Jacob Soll, New Republic
"Part history, part mystery . . . . [A] tour de force history of economic thought that gives deep insight into the evolution of thought towards (and mainly against) Jews . . . . The Promise and Peril of Credit was a true pleasure to read. For anyone interested in the history of early modern economic thought or Jewish economic history, this book is a must read."---Jared Rubin, The Journal of Economic History
"Trivellatos close, convincing analysis makes for stimulating reading."---Thomas Max Safley, Economic History Review
"Trivellatos The Promise and Peril of Credit bristles with intelligence, insight, and ingenuity: it is one of the most sophisticated, thoughtful, and thought-provoking books I have read (and enjoyed reading) in recent years."---Lars Fischer, Jewish Historical Studies
"[An] important and potentially field-changing [book]. . . . Trivellatos work has much contemporary resonance."---Flora Cassen, Jewish Quarterly Review
"The Promise and Peril of Credit masterfully traces changing European attitudes to finance and commerce in the early modern and modern periods."---Francesca Bregoli, Journal of Modern History
"A meticulous survey of the early modern commercial and economic literature. . . . The Promise and Peril of Credit is a book as erudite as it is sweeping. With ease and elegance, the author crosses not only language barriers, but also the trans-temporal divide between early modern and modern times. . . . Trivellato adds important nuance to our understanding of anti-Judaism."---Daniel Jtte, Eighteenth-Century Studies
"The books long subtitle promises to tell us what this forgotten legend reveals about the making of European commercial society. It is a testament to the authors erudition, patient research, and intellectual ecumenism that her book delivers so richly on this promise."---Rowan Dorin, Law and History Review
"Moving deftly through economic history, law, and the annals of anti-Semitism."---Elka Weber, Segula Jewish History Magazine
"[An] important book deserving the widest possible readership across disciplines. . . . [Its] subject is nothing less than the making of the modern world."---Robert Fredona, Business History Review
"The book is highly relevant today and truly inspiring."---Tom Tlle, H-Soz-u-Kult
"The valuable study by Francesca Trivellato, who transcends national and linguistic boundaries . . . shows how a study of international anti-Semitism can be done by focusing on one particular example such as a legend on Jewish economic activity and its subsequent spread throughout Europe."---Oliver Schulz, QUEST- Issues in Contemporary Jewish History
"Astonishing book."---Germano Maifreda, QUEST- Issues in Contemporary Jewish History
"Trivellatos study makes an important contribution to both Jewish Studies and the wider history of economic thought, the bridging of which is an express purpose of the work. . . . The book is an important contribution to the history of Jews in economic thought and to the study of the relationship between law and language."---Joshua Teplitsky, Antisemitism Studies
"This book is a gem. Francesca Trivellato has produced a multifaceted exploration of the complex relation between evolving Christian ideas about Jews and the development of modern commercial society."---Arthur Wilson, EH.net

Author Bio

Francesca Trivellato is professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She is the author of The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period.