The Jew Who Would Be King
A True Story of Shipwreck, Survival, and Scandal in Victorian Africa
Seiten
2025
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-40300-0 (ISBN)
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-40300-0 (ISBN)
"Brings the nineteenth century to life, with its attendant disease, violence, and colonial machinations.”—Jewish Book Council
“In Rovner's deeply researched biography, the adventurer's swashbuckling memoirs are. . . . a crowbar of sorts, used to pry open a window onto an era of possibility, prejudice and burgeoning colonial avarice.”—NPR
This vivid reconstruction of one man’s life reveals the harsh realities and moral ambiguities of colonial power.
The Jew Who Would Be King tells the story of Nathaniel Isaacs—a nineteenth-century British Jew who helped establish the Zulu kingdom only to become a ruthless warlord and slaveholder. Isaacs’ thrilling journey begins with his shipwreck on the shores of Zululand and proceeds to ports across West Africa, including Freetown, Sierra Leone. There, tasked by the colonial governor to end the local slave trade, Isaacs brokered deals that reinforced his own power.
Adam Rovner's meticulous archival research in England, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and St. Helena, coupled with his own travels to the remnants of Isaacs’ island stronghold in Guinea, brings this complex figure to life. Through Isaacs’ story, Rovner exposes the entangled forces of Jewish emancipation and antisemitism, slavery and abolition, the stark dichotomies of civilization and “savagery,” and the creation of whiteness versus Blackness.
“In Rovner's deeply researched biography, the adventurer's swashbuckling memoirs are. . . . a crowbar of sorts, used to pry open a window onto an era of possibility, prejudice and burgeoning colonial avarice.”—NPR
This vivid reconstruction of one man’s life reveals the harsh realities and moral ambiguities of colonial power.
The Jew Who Would Be King tells the story of Nathaniel Isaacs—a nineteenth-century British Jew who helped establish the Zulu kingdom only to become a ruthless warlord and slaveholder. Isaacs’ thrilling journey begins with his shipwreck on the shores of Zululand and proceeds to ports across West Africa, including Freetown, Sierra Leone. There, tasked by the colonial governor to end the local slave trade, Isaacs brokered deals that reinforced his own power.
Adam Rovner's meticulous archival research in England, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and St. Helena, coupled with his own travels to the remnants of Isaacs’ island stronghold in Guinea, brings this complex figure to life. Through Isaacs’ story, Rovner exposes the entangled forces of Jewish emancipation and antisemitism, slavery and abolition, the stark dichotomies of civilization and “savagery,” and the creation of whiteness versus Blackness.
Adam Rovner is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. He is author of the acclaimed In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Prologue
Introduction
Part One. From England to South Africa
1. Jews and Other Savages, 1808–1825
2. Strange Surprising Adventures, 1825–1827
3. Black Napoleon, 1827–1828
4. Appetite for Consumption, 1828–1832
Part Two. From England to West Africa
and Back
5. Feverish Trade, 1832–1837
6. Railroad Christianization, 1837–1853
7. The Queen versus the King, 1853–1856
8. Savage Invasions, 1856–1872
Postscript
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 10.04.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 16 b-w figures, 9 b-w maps |
| Verlagsort | Berkerley |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 635 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-520-40300-2 / 0520403002 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-520-40300-0 / 9780520403000 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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