No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe
By Rowan Dorin
Princeton University Press
ISBN: 978-0-691-24093-0
Usury—the practice of lending money at interest—became a major social flashpoint in western Europe during the Middle Ages. This book traces how resentment of usury fuelled hostility that, in many places, escalated into the expulsion of Jewish communities and other Christian moneylenders.
Excerpt:
The following chapters trace the association between usury and expulsion over the course of the Middle Ages, from its earliest attestations in the middle decades of the twelfth century to its sharp resurgence in the fifteenth. They explore how the same idea of expelling usurers emerged in different places from differing configurations of anxieties and traditions. They track how this idea spread across the intellectual and legal landscape of late medieval Europe, and how it mutated and evolved along the way, shifting back and forth across Christian and Jewish targets. They look too at how this idea expressed itself in practice, and how the ensuing expulsions were enforced or evaded. Finally, they show how individual episodes of expulsion inspired and shaped those that followed, such that what was once considered exceptional could at last become entrenched.
Who is this book for?
This fascinating book shows how money and wealth can sharpen social tensions—then as now—and how those tensions could be channelled into the ostracism of outsiders. Readers interested in medieval Jewish history, as well as the economic, social, religious, and legal history of the Middle Ages, will find plenty here to think about and much to learn.
“This is a remarkable book that is all the more extraordinary when one considers the author’s age and the fact that this is his first monograph. It is one of the most compelling, learned, and creatively argued revisionist studies I have ever read and firmly establishes Rowan Dorin as one of the most promising medieval historians working today.” ~ review by Thomas W. Barton in Speculum
“No Return is original, scholarly, and highly specialized. Those interested in medieval European economy will find it a fascinating journey and correction to several problematic stereotypes about usury and Jewish banking at that time.” ~ review by Jamin Andreas Hübner for EH.Net
Rowan Dorin is Associate Professor of History at Stamford University, where he researches law, society and economics during the latter half of the Middle Ages.
Congrats to Rowan Dorin, whose book No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe is the Finalist for the @jewishstudies.bsky.social Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in the Medieval & Early Modern Jewish History & Culture category!
No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe
By Rowan Dorin
Princeton University Press
ISBN: 978-0-691-24093-0
Usury—the practice of lending money at interest—became a major social flashpoint in western Europe during the Middle Ages. This book traces how resentment of usury fuelled hostility that, in many places, escalated into the expulsion of Jewish communities and other Christian moneylenders.
Excerpt:
The following chapters trace the association between usury and expulsion over the course of the Middle Ages, from its earliest attestations in the middle decades of the twelfth century to its sharp resurgence in the fifteenth. They explore how the same idea of expelling usurers emerged in different places from differing configurations of anxieties and traditions. They track how this idea spread across the intellectual and legal landscape of late medieval Europe, and how it mutated and evolved along the way, shifting back and forth across Christian and Jewish targets. They look too at how this idea expressed itself in practice, and how the ensuing expulsions were enforced or evaded. Finally, they show how individual episodes of expulsion inspired and shaped those that followed, such that what was once considered exceptional could at last become entrenched.
Who is this book for?
This fascinating book shows how money and wealth can sharpen social tensions—then as now—and how those tensions could be channelled into the ostracism of outsiders. Readers interested in medieval Jewish history, as well as the economic, social, religious, and legal history of the Middle Ages, will find plenty here to think about and much to learn.
“This is a remarkable book that is all the more extraordinary when one considers the author’s age and the fact that this is his first monograph. It is one of the most compelling, learned, and creatively argued revisionist studies I have ever read and firmly establishes Rowan Dorin as one of the most promising medieval historians working today.” ~ review by Thomas W. Barton in Speculum
“No Return is original, scholarly, and highly specialized. Those interested in medieval European economy will find it a fascinating journey and correction to several problematic stereotypes about usury and Jewish banking at that time.” ~ review by Jamin Andreas Hübner for EH.Net
This book has won several awards, including the Margaret Wade Labarge Prize from the Canadian Society of Medievalists and the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical Association.
The Author
Rowan Dorin is Associate Professor of History at Stamford University, where he researches law, society and economics during the latter half of the Middle Ages.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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