Smart Jews: The Construction of the Image of Jewish Superior Intelligence Paperback - 1997

From the publisher

"Smart Jews" addresses one of the most controversial theories of our day: the alleged connection between race (or ethnicity), intelligence, and virtue. Sander Gilman showsthat such theories have a long, disturbing history. He examines a wide range of texts scientific treatises, novels, films, philosophical works, and operas that assert the greater intelligence (and, often, lesser virtue) of Jews.

The book opens with a discussion of concepts that relate intelligence and race (particularly those that figure in the controversial bestseller "The Bell Curve"); it then describes scientific theories of Jewish superior intelligence that were developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gilman explores the reactions to those theories by Jewish scientists and intellectuals of that era, including Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The conclusion turns to how such ideas figure in modern novels and films, from F. Scott Fitzgerald s "The Last Tycoon" to Stephen Spielberg s "Schindler s List" and Robert Redford s "Quiz Show."

A fascinating, highly readable book, "Smart Jews" is an essential work in our ongoing debates about race, ethnicity, intelligence, and virtue."

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