Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Efron, Noah J.
Titre(s) : A chosen calling [Texte imprimé] : Jews in science in the twentieth century / Noah J. Efron
Publication : Baltimore : Johns Hopkins university press, 2014
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (XV-149 p.) ; 24 cm
Collection : Medicine, science, and religion in historical context
Lien à la collection : Medicine, science, and religion in historical context
Comprend : Preface : a vanload of rabbis in the culture wars of Kentucky ; Introduction : "Ridiculously
disproportionate"? ; "Holding high the torch of civilization" : American Jews and
twentieth-century science ; "Second only to Communism" : making Soviet Jews and Soviet
science ; "Making a land of experiments" : science and technology in Zionist imagination
and enterprise ; Conclusion : when all worlds were new worlds.
Note(s) : Bibliogr. p. 105-141
Scholars have struggled for decades to explain why Jews have succeeded extravagantly
in modern science. A variety of controversial theories from such intellects as C.
P. Snow, Norbert Wiener, and Nathaniel Weyl have been promoted. Snow hypothesized
an evolved genetic predisposition to scientific success. Wiener suggested that the
breeding habits of Jews sustained hereditary qualities conducive for learning. Economist
and eugenicist Weyl attributed Jewish intellectual eminence to "seventeen centuries
of breeding for scholars." Rejecting the idea that Jews have done well in science
because of uniquely Jewish traits, Jewish brains, and Jewish habits of mind, historian
of science Noah J. Efron approaches the Jewish affinity for science through the geographic
and cultural circumstances of Jews who were compelled to settle in new worlds in the
early twentieth century. Seeking relief from religious persecution, millions of Jews
resettled in the United States, Palestine, and the Soviet Union, with large concentrations
of settlers in New York, Tel Aviv, and Moscow. Science played a large role in the
lives and livelihoods of these immigrants: it was a universal force that transcended
the arbitrary Old World orders that had long ensured the exclusion of all but a few
Jews from the seats of power, wealth, and public esteem. Although the three destinations
were far apart geographically, the links among the communities were enduring and spirited.
This shared experience of facing the future in new worlds, both physical and conceptual
provided a generation of Jews with opportunities unlike any their parents and grandparents
had known. The tumultuous recent century of Jewish history, which saw both a methodical
campaign to blot out Europe's Jews and the inexorable absorption of Western Jews into
the societies in which they now live, is illuminated by the place of honor science
held in Jewish imaginations. Science was central to their dreams of creating new worlds
- welcoming worlds - for a persecuted people. This provocative work will appeal to
historians of science as well as scholars of religion, Jewish studies, and Zionism
Sujet(s) : Sciences -- Société
Judaïsme et sciences
Indice(s) Dewey :
509 (23e éd.) = Sciences naturelles et mathématiques - Histoire
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9781421413815. - ISBN 1421413817 (rel.). - ISBN 9781421413822 (erroné). - ISBN
1421413825 (erroné) (electronic)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb44306766v
Notice n° :
FRBNF44306766
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
