Fun with History!

This is from my other blog, Better Living Through History, but I was limited what I could label, so there I focused on the non-fiction, here I will focus on the fiction...
So, I have long wanted to construct some sort of course using novels, poetry, films, etc. to "teach" history - or, that is, to introduce a subject in a fun way, and then make scholarly works available to provide context. Here's a first attempt, which is clearly just for my own amusement, and not actually meant for learning. As for "Wicked old-timey Jews" - here I am referring to Jewish diaspora populations (including crypto-Jews) in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, particularly so-called Port Jews and those in the Mediterranean world(because I could be totally wrong, but the Sephardic population during this time seems to be more fun).


For starters, a friend from college, N., gave me The Ghost of Hannah Mendes one year for Christmas (yes, my Jewish friend gave me a Jewish book for Christmas. Yay, melting pot!). I really, really enjoyed it, and have read it more than once. The characters were a little flat, but I loved the way the story goes back and forth between a Renaissance Jewish woman and her modern-day descendants who are trying to trace her story, told in some lost documents, and the parallels drawn between their search for love and goals in life, and the same searches their ancestress and grandmother carried out. The story can be a bit heavy-handed at times, really hitting you over the head with some stuff, but it's fun and romantic, and the author, Naomi Ragen, does a nice job setting up some of the exotic scenes, in modern and Renaissance Spain and Venice, particularly.

Geraldine Brooks also traces the history of a document in People of the Book, which was not as much fun to read (although it was fun!), but is much better written as far as straight skill. I think they're a nice complement. It's kinda a stretch, but the Phillipa Gregory book The Queen's Fool stars a young converso girl (conversa?) in London, who is tied up with Mary and Elizabeth. And there's always the first book in the "Mistress of the Art of Death" series, which is sorta on the subject of Jews in England but I love the book/series/characters, so I'm pluggin' em!





After these, for the real historical context, readers could turn to Jonathan I. Israel's Diasporas Within A Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews, and the World Maritime Empires (1540-1740), Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, eds., The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West 1450-1800, David Cesarani, ed., Port Jews: Jewish Communities in Cosmopolitan Trading Centres, 1550-1950, and Cesarani and Gemma Romain, eds., Jews and Port Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce, Community, and Cosmopolitanism. There is also an article by David Sorkin, "The port Jew: Notes toward a social type," in the Journal of Jewish Studies (51:1, 1999).

For more "readable" non-fiction, perhaps Ornament of the World (which, I must be honest, I haven't opened yet, but it sounds great!) by Maria Rosa Menocal, about "how Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created A Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain" or the GORGEOUS (lots and lots of pictures) The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims and the Making of Castilian Culture. There are also some books on the similar cultural interactions in Sicily, and I am looking into more on Jewish communities in New World port cities.