New Paradigms in Southern Jewish History, 1585–1860

"Nobody has tilled the field of southern Jewish history longer or more assiduously than Mark K. Bauman. For almost fifty years, he has cultivated the field with his own fresh scholarship, encouraged others to pursue and publish their findings, and mastered the field's extensive literature. In this first-ever survey of southern Jewish history prior to the Civil War, Bauman synthesizes what he has learned. He presents the Jewish South in rich detail, embracing complexity and ambiguity, employing multiple methodologies, and introducing innovative concepts. Every serious student of the antebellum South will stand in awe of his achievement."—Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History

"Synthesizing several generations of scholarship and offering fresh interpretations of the southern Jewish experience from the colonial era through the Civil War, Mark Bauman thoughtfully demonstrates the inseparability of southern history and Jewish history. Ranging from discussions of economic and political life through considerations of community, family, and identity across a wide geographic landscape, Bauman's kaleidoscopic approach reveals the endless contradictions and complexities of the southern past and the Jewish past alike."—Joshua D. Rothman, author of The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America

"Mark Bauman rightfully deserves to be called the dean of southern Jewish historians. This book constitutes a rich distillation of Bauman's half-century of penetrating scholarship and insightful analyses of Jewish life in the American South. It is a landmark contribution to the field. Bauman's historical reconstruction reminds us that even though southern Jews shared a common heritage with their co-religionists throughout the American nation, the fascinating legacy of Jewish life in the South proves that American Jewish history is not New York Jewish history writ large."—Gary Phillip Zola, author of We Called Him Rabbi Abraham: Lincoln and American Jewry, a Documentary History