Language in Time of Revolution
"With his customary versatility and lucidity Harshav has given us . . . a host of new and provocative insights into modern Jewish history. . . . This book is an outstanding attempt to juxtapose the revolution in Jewish life with that of the Hebrew language in such a way that each informs our understanding of the other.”—Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Columbia University
Search in google:
This book on culture and consciousness in history concerns the worldwide transformations of Jewish culture and society and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language following the waves of pogroms in Russia in 1881, when large numbers of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe redefined their identity as Jews in a new and baffling world.Reviews“With his customary versatility and lucidity Harshav has given us . . . a host of new and provocative insights into modern Jewish history. . . . This book is an outstanding attempt to juxtapose the revolution in Jewish life with that of the Hebrew language in such a way that each informs our understanding of the other.”—Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi,Columbia University “It is no small component of Harshav’s success in this altogether fascinating book to have made clear the family resemblance between what is still regularly called ‘the almost miraculous revival of the Hebrew language’ and the coterie movements of European high modernism in both politics and the arts.”—Modernism/Modernity“A wise, original, and stimulating book on the shaping of modern Jewish culture. . . . Humane, deeply erudite, and very satisfying.”—Steven Zipperstein,Stanford University“Israeli Hebrew, Angel Sáenz-Badillos has written, ‘is not the result of natural evolution but of a process without parallel in the development of any other language.’ The precise nature of the process is studied in illuminating detail in Language in Time of Revolution.”—London Review of Books“The crisscrossing among the discourses of literature,ideology, history, and linguistics makes for a heady intellectual experience. . . . Harshav writes with great authority and verve. . . . His discussions are a model of clarity.”—Alan Mintz,Brandeis University
PrefaceA Note to the ReaderPt. IThe Modern Jewish Revolution: An Essay on the History of Culture and Consciousness1Transformations: Extrinsic and Intrinsic32The Internal Response to History73A New Period in History104The Centrifugal Movement145The Force of Negation176The New Cultural Trends247The Secular Polysystem338Assimilation409A Jewish Century4210The Continuous Rainbow4711The Individual5312Flashback: Collapse and Victory of the Enlightenment5713Politics and Literature6314Consolidation6815Two Endings to one Revolution7016The Age of Modernism76Pt. IIThe Revival of the Hebrew Language: Anatomy of a Social Revolution17The Miracle of the Revival of Hebrew8118The Social Existence of Language8919Theory of Twin Systems9320Language as a Unifying Force9721The Pitfalls of Scholarship10122The Beginnings of the Language Revival10423Three Factors in the Revival of the Language11324The Life of "Dead" Hebrew11525The Revival of Written Hebrew12026New Cells of Society in a Social Desert13327Ashkenazi or Sephardi Dialect?15328Remarks on the Nature of Israeli Hebrew16729Principles of the Revolution: A Retrospective Summary17330Remarks Toward a Theory of Social Revolution177Pt. IIISources on the Hebrew Language RevivalRachel Katznelson: Language Insomnia (1918)183Yitzhak Tabenkin: The Roots (1937)195Berl Katznelson: On the Question of Languages (1919)205Yosef Klauzner: Ancient Hebrew and Modern Hebrew (1929)208Tsvi Shats: Exile of our Classical Poetry (1919)216References222Index229
