Description:
- Combines medieval and modern historiography.
- First comprehensive work about Jewish life in medieval Prussia.
- Unique method for criticism of ideology combining biographic and semantic approach.
Brief description:
Cordelia Hess is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg and a Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Literature, History and Antiquities, Stockholm. Her publications include Social Imagery in Middle Low German: Didactical Literature and Metaphorical Representation (2013) and, as co-editor, Fear and Loathing in the North: Jews and Muslims in Medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region (2015, with Jonathan Adams).
Review Quotes:
"Based on a meticulous analysis of various primary sources, she questions the existence of an anti-Jewish policy and concludes that the low profile of Jews in official documents may not in fact point to their physical absence but rather the absence of conflict between Gentiles and Jews, as peaceful relations were less likely to be recorded than blood libel cases and pogroms... Hess's attempt to recover Jewish experiences in light of the surviving evidence offers a useful introduction for English-speaking readers who are unfamiliar with the complexities of Prussian medieval history." - Journal of Modern Jewish Studies