Synopses & Reviews
"An acknowledged classic. Katz has transformed our conception of Jewish history from the 16th to the 18th century. Because of his work, we now understand that the ghetto was no longer sealed off at that time from outside opinions and that the movement towards modernity had begun long before the Jews were actually legally emancipated. Making this work available again in the revised edition is a service to scholarship and to public enlightenment."
Arthur Hertzberg
"Since it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958, Tradition and Crisis has had a tremendous impact on generations of students and scholars. Katz's innovative use of sources has introduced scholars to new methodologies and opened new vistas for research. This new, unabridged translation is therefore highly welcome. It will ensure its continued use in the English-speaking world."
Jehuda Reinharz, Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University
"Like a lovingly restored painting, Bernard Cooperman's new, annotated translation of Jacob Katz's classic portrait of early Jewish modernity can now be fully appreciated for the first time. An admirable achievement."
Ivan G. Marcus
When it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958 and in English in 1961, Tradition and Crisis, Jacob Katz's groundbreaking study of Jewish society at the end of the Middle Ages, dramatically changed our perceptions of the Jewish community prior to the era of modernity. This new, unabridged translation by Bernard Dov Cooperman makes this classic available to new generations of students and scholars, together with Katz's original source notes, and an afterword and an updating bibliographic appendix by Professor Cooperman.
Katz revolutionized the field by tapping into a rich and hitherto unexplored source for reconstructing the sociology of a previous era: the responsa literature of the Rabbinic establishment during the Middle Ages. The self-governing communities of Jews in Europe dealt with issues both civil and religious. The questions and answers addressed to the rabbinic authorities and courts provide an incomparable wealth of insights into life as it was lived in this period and into the social, historical, cultural, and economic issues of the day.
How did European Jewry progress from a socially and culturally segregated society to become a component of European society at large? What were Jewish attitudes toward the Gentile world from which Jewry had been secluded for centuries? What were the bridges from the old to the new era?
Tradition and Crisis traces the roots of modernity to internal developments within the communities themselves. Katz traces the modern movements of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) in the West and Hasidism in the East, to an internal breakdown in the structure of these communities and the emergence of an alternative leadership in the wake of the Sabbatian challenge.
A dynamic work that has radically changed our view of this history, Tradition and Crisis remains the pivotal text for understanding the revolution in the entire conception of Jewish identity in the modern era.
Review
“As a recognized expert in the field, Hamm is eminently qualified to prepare this text on the subject of terrorism from the criminal law perspective. . . . The text is written in a clear, lively manner.”
-Choice,
Review
“[Provides] the first detailed account of how crime provides logistical support for terrorist strikes. By blending the study of terrorism and criminology, Hamm offers the possibility of detecting and stopping terrorism through the pursuit of conventional methods of criminal investigation.”
-Gary LaFree,Director, START, National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism University of Maryland Department of Criminology/Democracy
Review
“Read this book to understand the important nexus between terrorism and crime! This cutting edge analysis suggests a new approach to defeat the terrorist threat to the United States.”
-Marc Sageman,author of Understanding Terror Networks
Review
“As a recognized expert in the field, Hamm is eminently qualified to prepare this text on the subject of terrorism from the criminal law perspective. . . . The text is written in a clear, lively manner.”
- Choice
“As a recognized expert in the field, Hamm is eminently qualified to prepare this text on the subject of terrorism from the criminal law perspective. . . . The text is written in a clear, lively manner.”
“Drawing on six case studies of terrorist attacks by radical Islamists and right-wing racists, Hamm writes that American counterterrorist agencies have neglected some basic insights from scholarly criminology.”
“Read this book to understand the important nexus between terrorism and crime! This cutting edge analysis suggests a new approach to defeat the terrorist threat to the United States.”
“Hamm's clear writing style, careful research and theoretical insights promise to make this a classic in criminology.”
Review
“Drawing on six case studies of terrorist attacks by radical Islamists and right-wing racists, Hamm writes that American counterterrorist agencies have neglected some basic insights from scholarly criminology.”
-The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Review
“Hamm's clear writing style, careful research and theoretical insights promise to make this a classic in criminology.”
-William J. Chambliss,author of Power, Politics, and Crime
Synopsis
Car bombing, suicide bombing, abduction, smuggling, homicide, and hijacking are all profoundly criminal acts. In
Terrorism as Crime Mark S. Hamm presents an understanding of terrorism from a criminological point of view, arguing that the most successful way to understand, detect, prosecute and deter these acts is to use conventional criminal investigation methods. Whether in Oklahoma City or London,
Terrorism as Crime demonstrates that criminal activity is the lifeblood of terrorist groups and that there are simple common denominators at work that can remove the mystery surrounding many of these terrorist groups. Once understood the vulnerabilities of these organizations can be exposed.
This important volume focuses in on six case studies of crimes committed by jihad and domestic right wing groups, including biographies of more than two dozen terrorists along with descriptions of their organizations, strategies, and terrorist plots. Terrorism as Crime offers an original and significant framework for explaining international and domestic terrorism, as well as how future acts might be detected or exposed.
About the Author
Mark S. Hamm is a former prison warden from Arizona and currently Professor of Criminology at Indiana State University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Terrorism Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York. His books include Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond (NYU Press, 2007), and In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground. He is the recipient of the Frederick Milton Thrasher Award for Outstanding Gang Scholarship, and the Critical Criminologist of the Year Award from the American Society of Criminology.