University Press Group Slezkine, Y: The Jewish Century

"Yuri Slezkine has written an extraordinary book with continual surprises. A landmark work."--Ronald Suny, University of Chicago"I can think of few works that match the conceptual range, polemical sharpness, and sheer elan of "The Jewish Century." An extraordinary book: analytically acute, lyrical, witty, and disturbing all at once."--Benjamin Nathans, author of "Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia""Yuri Slezkine's book is at the same time very personal and very erudite. A blend of political and cultural history at its best, it is a splendid work, beautifully written. A true accomplishment by a master historian."--Jan T. Gross, author of "Neighbors""Once every few decades, a book forces a reevaluation of basic assumptions in a field. Yuri Slezkine's passionate and brilliant tour de force not only challenges received wisdom about Russian and Soviet Jews, but just as provocatively overturns the uniqueness that many ascribe to Jewish history altogether. "The Jewish Century" is a work sure to spark heated debate not only about the Jews, but also about what it means to be modern."--David Biale, editor, "Cultures of the Jews: A New History"""The Jewish Century" is an extraordinarily stimulating and ambitious piece of work that invites debate and controversy. Slezkine's account is subtle, beautifully written, and very moving; it combines humor, irony, and understated passion."--Tim McDaniel, author of "The Agony of the Russian Idea" (Princeton)"This is a strong, well-documented, passionately argued, original, and bold essay on history, or the ideology of history, in what I called "a Jewish century" (see my Language in "Time of Revolution"). Onewants to argue with the author on many pages of the manuscript, but it is such a powerful, sweeping statement that it must be left whole and intact, as a central position in future arguments on modernity, the twentieth century, and the history of the Jews."--Benjamin Harshav, Yal