Document Type
Review
Date of this Version
1-2002
Publication Source
The Jewish Quarterly Review
Volume
92
Issue
3-4
Start Page
638
Last Page
643
DOI
10.1353/jqr.2002.0033
Abstract
John Efron's new book pursues two scholarly trajectories simultaneously. On the one hand, it offers a history of Jewish physicians and medical practice in Germany from the Middle Ages until the Holocaust period. On the other hand, it examines the uses of medicine and medical discourse to bolster or undermine political, racial, and national agendas, both Jewish and antisemitic, in the modern era. Although Efron seeks to link these two subjects as one, they do not mesh as organically as he intends. Moreover, while the second trajectory is generally well-conceived and well-argued, making a genuine contribution to modern Jewish cultural history, the first is more sketchy and uneven, and is clearly less accomplished.
Copyright/Permission Statement
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112.
Recommended Citation
Ruderman, D. B. (2002). Review of John M. Efron, Medicine and the German Jews: A History. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 92 (3-4), 638-643. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2002.0033
Included in
Cultural History Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Jewish Studies Commons
Date Posted: 02 August 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.