Description: "In thirteenth-century England, Jews played important roles in English society. Yet Church authorities feared the consequences of Jewish contact with Christians and tried to limit it, to little avail. Some circulated vicious rumors, accusing Jews of capturing and crucifying Christian children. All of these factors led Edward I to expel the Jews from England in 1290. Paradoxically, thirteenth-century England is both the theater of deep and fruitful economic and social exchange between Jews and Christians and one of the crucibles of European Antisemitism"--
Brief description: John Tolan is Professor of History at the University of Nantes and a member of the Academia Europæa.
Review Quotes: "[This] book tells a gripping and accessible story of thirteenth-century policy makers and communities in conflict, while also occasionally pausing to assess the hearts and minds of those involved in the events that led to the Expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. Moving us from England to France to Rome to the Holy Land and back again, Tolan takes his readers through the international political machinations of church and state that preceded 1290. Along the way, he succeeds in demonstrating how enmeshed English Jews were not only in the economy of twelfth- and thirteenth-century England but also in early notions of Englishness."-- "Medieval Encounters"