Synopses & Reviews
Shaw's excellent treatise is a must for anyone researching roots in Turkey or the Ottoman Empire . . . well organized. . . . [and] impressively researched.
Dorot
Shaw points out many interesting facts of the symbiosis between Jews and Muslims as he traces the relationship of more than 600 years.
Choice
Especially recommended for college-level students of Jewish history and culture.
The Bookwatch
Over the course of the last 600 years, the existence of the Jews of western Europe was continually threatened. While many took refuge in the Eastern regions of Europe, particularly in Poland and Lithuania, many more found shelter in the dominions of the Ottoman empire and in the Middle East, where their reception was far more congenial.
This remarkable history, written by one of the world's foremost scholars of Turkish history, is the definitive account of Jewish life and history in this region. It is the story of the ideological and religious differences, and the hazardous but often successful cohabitation that characterized the life of the Jews of the Ottoman empire and, later, of Turkey.
Examining the economic, cultural, and religious contributions of the Ottoman Jewish community, Stanford J. Shaw, a master of Turkish history, here documents the role of Ottoman Jews in the early Zionist movement, in World War I, and in the Turkish War for Independence. His analysis of the structures of different Jewish communities, the relations between them, and the relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in this unique circumstance is engaging and incisive. As Shaw sifts through the centuries, it becomes apparent that the fortunes of the Ottoman Jews directly paralleled those of the Ottoman empire.
Shaw's extensive research in Ottoman, British, and French archives, as well as sources in Hebrew and Ladino, is supplemented by personal interviews with such major players as Haim Nahum Efendi, the last Grand Rabbi of the Ottoman empire, Rabbi David Asseo, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, and a number of prominent Turkish-Jewish scholars and businessmen.
Review
“True to its title, Sites Unseen offers a remarkably fresh, provocative perspective on the role of race in American literature by grounding it securely in architectural history and making us see domesticity, in its many social and cultural dimensions, in an entirely new light.”-Eric J. Sundquist,Johns Hopkins University
Review
"[A] fascinating book."-T.Bonner Jr.,Choice
Review
"William A.Gleason offers an intriguing way to look at race in America via the architecture mentioned in diverse literary genres."-Helen Bradley Foster,Journal of American History
Review
"[the] book promises to invigorate critical conversations in the interdisciplinary study of literature and architecture..." -, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
Synopsis
Sites Unseen examines the complex intertwining of race and architecture in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American culture, the period not only in which American architecture came of age professionally in the U.S. but also in which ideas about architecture became a prominent part of broader conversations about American culture, history, politics, and--although we have not yet understood this clearly--race relations. This rich and copiously illustrated interdisciplinary study explores the ways that American writing between roughly 1850 and 1930 concerned itself, often intensely, with the racial implications of architectural space primarily, but not exclusively, through domestic architecture.
In addition to identifying an archive of provocative primary materials, Sites Unseen draws significantly on important recent scholarship in multiple fields ranging from literature, history, and material culture to architecture, cultural geography, and urban planning. Together the chapters interrogate a variety of expressive American vernacular forms, including the dialect tale, the novel of empire, letters, and pulp stories, along with the plantation cabin, the West Indian cottage, the Latin American plaza, and the “Oriental” parlor. These are some of the overlooked plots and structures that can and should inform a more comprehensive consideration of the literary and cultural meanings of American architecture. Making sense of the relations between architecture, race, and American writing of the long nineteenth century--in their regional, national, and hemispheric contexts--Sites Unseen provides a clearer view not only of this catalytic era but also more broadly of what architectural historian Dell Upton has aptly termed the social experience of the built environment.
About the Author
Stanford J. Shaw is a Professor of Turkish and Judeo-Turkish History at the University of California, Los Angeles and serves as Chair for both the Committee for the B.A. in Near Eastern History and the Program for the Study of Ottoman and Turkish Jewry. He is the author of numerous books, including The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and The Turkish Republic (also published by NYU Press).