Reviews : Peter Pulzer, Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848-1933, Oxford, Blackwell, 1992; xvi + 370 pp.; £35.00
Abstract
ReviewsPeter Pulzer, Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848-1933, Oxford, Blackwell, 1992; xvi + 370 pp.; £35.00 SAGE Publications, Inc.1993DOI: 10.1177/026569149302300409 Martyn Housden University of Bradford There can be many reasons for historical tunnel vision. Regarding 'the Jewish Question', it is easy to become so consumed with anti-Semitic actions and propaganda that we fail to see Jewish individuals as active and independent historical agents. Pulzer's book helps correct such defective vision. Its scope, its focus on specifically the relationship between Jews and the German state, and the extensive discussion of the position of Jews in Germany between 1914 and 1933, all distinguish this study in particular. By the author's own admission, the 'study' is really a collection of essays of widely varying lengths. The serious business falls to the first and third chapters (the third covering 255 pages). In the former, Pulzer develops a notion of 'the Jewish Question' rooted in constitutional law and functionalist thinking; in the latter, he addresses the main political issues facing the Jews from the Napoleonic period to the end of Weimar. Other chapters discuss discrimination against Jews vis-A-vis judicial posts, Jews and German Liberalism, as well as