eBook

The Colors of Zion

Bornstein, George

2011

Overview

This comparative study focuses on three groups often seen as antagonistic—Blacks, Jews, and Irish. Resolutely aware of past tensions, Bornstein argues that the pendulum has swung too far in that direction and that it is time to recover the history of lost connections and cooperation among the groups. The chronological range stretches from Frederick Douglass’s tour of Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840s through the 1940s with the catastrophe of World War II. The study ends with the concept of the Righteous Gentile commemorated at the Israeli Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem--non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their own lives to rescue Jews from the horror of the Holocaust. Bornstein expands the term here to include all those Irish, Jewish, or African American figures who fought against narrow identification only with their own group and instead championed a wider and more humane vision of a shared humanity that sees hybridity rather than purity and love rather than resentment. The identity politics and culture wars of recent decades often made recognizing those positive qualities problematic. But with the election of a mixed-race president who himself embodies mixture and mutual respect (and who famously described himself as a “mutt\"), the shallow and arbitrary nature of narrow identity politics become evident. This study recuperates strong voices from the past of all three groups in order to let them speak for themselves.

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Subject: 19th century / 20th century / African American authors / American literature / American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism / American literature -- Jewish authors -- History and criticism / Black people-Race identity / Blacks / Blacks -- Race identity / Brotherhoods / Ethnic identity / Ethnic relations / Ethnic relations -- History / Ethnicity / Ethnocentrism / HISTORY / HISTORY / General / History and criticism / Identity / Interethnic relations / Irish / Irish -- Ethnic identity / Irish literature / Irish literature -- History and criticism / Jewish authors / Jews / Jews -- Identity / Language & Literature / LITERARY CRITICISM / General / Musicians / Politicians / Race identity / Race relations in literature / Racism / Racism -- History / Racism -- United States -- History / Social history / U.S.A / United States / United States -- Ethnic relations -- History / Writers
• ISBN: 9780674057012, 0674057015, 0674059204, 9780674059207