The bonds that bind: money lending between Anglo-Jewish and Christian women in the plea rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, 1218–1280

The plea rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews represent the single most important source for understanding the interrelations and interactions of Jewish and Christian women in thirteenth-century England. A uniquely voluminous series of documents pertaining to the bureaucracy that grew up around Jewish lending after 1190, the rolls reveal the many ways in which women of different faiths were brought into contact — both amicable and oppositional — through financial transactions, predominantly the borrowing and lending of money. It further considers the shared family interests, credit networks and daily necessities that such transactions signified. Finally, by examining specific cases — from large scale, national disputes played out in the Exchequer Court to small-scale disagreements in the locality — it seeks to demonstrate how Jewish and Christian women negotiated with one another for economic resources. It concludes that money-lending, complicated by the particularities of kinship and business structures, first brought women of different faiths together and then tore them apart.     

The Press and Public Diplomacy in Iran, 1820–1940

The under-appreciated role of the press as a tool of public diplomacy was rooted in its origins as a Qajar state project in the nineteenth century, but also cultivated by a shared impulse of Iranian journalists and statesmen to represent Iran effectively in the court of world opinion. Moreover, foreign governments often reacted to the Iranian press generally, not just the official newspapers and not just newspapers produced in Iran, as a forum though which to advance or protect their interests in Iran. The Pahlavi state integrated the press as part of a larger state-run mass communication policy in the 1930s that would eventually include new technologies such as radio, and retained public diplomacy as an essential purpose of the media. This study draws upon archival material, press accounts, and memoirs.     

The Modernization of Iran and the Development of the Persian Carpet Industry: The Neo-Classical Era in the Persian Carpet Industry, 1925–45

The two decades, 1925–45, witnessed a dramatic transformation and revitalization of the Persian carpet industry in response to developments in Iranian governance, society and economy. Two historical watersheds were covered by that period, notably the replacement of the Qajar dynasty by a modernizing administration under Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the subsequent wartime occupation of Iran jointly by the Soviet Union and Great Britain. It was during those two decades that Iran acquired a centralized system of government and the beginnings of a modern industrial base. The accompanying social transformation brought about the emergence of new classes of administrators and managers who constituted the dominant elite of the Reza Shah era. This twin process of centralization and modernization had a telling impact on Iranian culture and the arts, including the carpet arts.     

The Challenges of Financial Responsibility in the Tribal Administration of Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1919–1966

Abstract

This account of tribal finances in Bechuanaland Protectorate under British colonial rule argues that while the treasury dispensation made the tribes responsible for their finances, it also brought about a new dynamic and challenge in tribal communities as a result of a new monetary and financial system. Little or inadequate remuneration led to low morale, theft, and the employment of incompetent personnel in some instances. The colonial authority needed the chiefs to run tribal affairs and for political stability. As a result, chiefs often escaped unpunished whenever they were involved in peculation of funds. On the other hand, when tribal revenue workers did the same they were harshly dealt with. Efficiency and corruption in the treasury system differed from one area to another and was dependent on the character of the chief in the area.     

The Israeli left between culture and politics: Tzavta and Mapam, 1956–1973

The Tzavta club in Tel Aviv (until 1956 called the Center for Progressive Culture) was founded in 1946 by Hakibbutz Ha'artzi-Hashomer Hatza'ir kibbutz movement. Cultural activity was a traditional means used by political movements to increase their influence in society. However, as part of the “cultural front” of Hashomer Hatza'ir and Mapam, Tzavta had the additional goal of strengthening “ideological collectivism” among the members of the movement and the party. This article analyzes Tzavta's activity between 1956 and 1973, arguing that it was created to combine two functions – cultural and political. Although the leadership of Mapam intended to use the club as a political tool for disseminating the party's views and controlling internal conflicts, Tzavta became increasingly culturally autonomous and eventually uncontrollable.     

First Lessons in Neo-Colonialism: The Personalisation of Relations between African Politicians and French Officials in sub-Saharan Africa, 1956–66

In scholarly debates, ‘French neo-colonialism’ is defined as the social history of relations between Francophile African elites and French decision-makers in African policy, and it is frequently interpreted as a sinister manipulation of rather passive African populations. Exploring the newly accessible French archival documents, it is now possible to understand better how French officials became neo-colonial players, from the frustration of the last days of colonialism, to a new model of friend and foe in sub-Saharan Africa. A complex and highly emotional interplay of relations with African leaders accounted for the seemingly rational ‘neo-colonialist’ behaviour of French civil servants from 1955 at least to the decade after decolonisation.     

Ambiguous immigrants? Examining the changing status of the English in New Zealand

Drawing on a qualitative interview‐based study of English migrants in New Zealand, this article examines, if and how, overseas migration triggers national sentiments that were previously relatively amorphous in their country of origin. In those cases where this occurs, it analyses the diverse and contextual orientations migrants display, and discusses the empirical and analytic challenges posed when seeking to conceptualise a category of persons that have been described as ‘ambiguous immigrants’. The study concludes that research on this ambiguity contributes to debates about the relationship between dominant ethnicity and national identity while highlighting the simplicities of many concepts used to describe and analyse ‘the English’.     

Buttressing the West in the North: The Atlantic Alliance,Economic Warfare,and the Soviet Challenge in Iceland, 1956–1959

MICHAEL MCCORMICK. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300-900. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xxviii, 1,101. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by Warren Treadgold     

Psychoanalyzing Iran: Kennedy's Iran Task Force and the Modernization of Orientalism, 1961–3

Between 1961 and 1963, a political crisis in Iran prompted U.S. foreign-policy makers to briefly consider supporting political reform that would have pushed the Shah toward a more constitutional role and moved Iran toward democracy. Yet Washington instead decided to bolster the Shah's regime to carry out social and economic reforms that coalesced as the Shah's White Revolution in 1963. Policy-makers relied in part on a psychological profile of Iran to shape their decisions, believing that the Iranian people were psychologically unprepared to rule, and that the Shah was psychologically unprepared to give up power. This article encourages diplomatic historians to explore how the language and ideas of psychology influenced the modernization theories and policies that U.S. policy-makers applied to Iran, the Middle East, and the wider ‘Third World.’ After briefly exploring the history of U.S. racial, religious, and cultural perceptions of Iran - many of which fit traditional stereotypes of Orientalism - the article examines the influence of political and developmental psychology at a time when racial and religious bias were increasingly taboo. Psychology offered more acceptable, scientific ways to understand Iran and the Middle East, though it led to familiar conclusions. While attempting to modernize Iran, policy-makers modernized Orientalism.     

War memorials and the commemoration of the Israeli war of independence, 1948–1956

Gershon Greenberg, The Holy Land in American Religious Thought, 1620–1948: The Symbiosis of American Religious Approaches to Scripture's Sacred Territory, Lanham, Maryland, University Press of America, 1994.

Steven Beller, Herzl, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991, 161 pp.

Theodor Herzl: Briefe und Tagebucher, Briefe 1895–1898, Vol. 4, 1990, and Briefe 1898–1900, Vol. 5, 1991, Barbara Schäfer et al, eds., Frankfurt/M., Propyläen Verlag.

Jacques Kornberg, Theodar Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1993, 272 pp., $24.95.

Michael Berkowitz, Zionist Culture and West European Jewry before the First World War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, £29.95.

Laura Zittrain-Eisenberg, My Enemy's Enemy: Lebanon in the Early Zionist Imagination, 1900–1948, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1994, 211 pp., $29.95.

Philip Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al‐Hajj Amin al‐Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, New York, Columbia University Press (Revised Edition), 1991.

Hava Eshkoli (Wagman), Silence: Mapai and the Holocaust — 1939–1942, Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, 1994.

Yechiam Weitz, Aware but Helpless: Mapai and the Hobcaust — 1943–1945, Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, 1994.

Jehuda Reinharz, Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993. xii, 498 pp., bibliography, index, illustrations, £32.50.

Dov Gavish, Land and Map: The Survey of Palestine, 1920–1948 (Hebrew), Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, 1991, 297 pp.

David H. Shpiro, From Philanthropy to Activism: The Political Transformation of American Zionism in the Holocaust Years 1933–1945, New York, Pergamon Press, 1994, xxxvi + 208 pp.

Asher Susser, On Both Banks of the Jordan: A Political Biography of Wasfi al‐Tall, Frank Cass, London, 1994.

Samuel Heilman, Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra‐Orthodox Jewry. New York, Schocken Books, 1992, xxxi, 394 pp., $27.50.

Yosef Gorny, The State of Israel in Jewish Public Thought: The Quest for Collective Identity, New York, New York University Press, 1994, xii+279 pp.