Full Description
Redcliffe Salaman (1874-1955) was an English Jew of many facets: a country gentleman, a physician, a biologist who pioneered the breeding of blight-free strains of potatoes, a Jewish nationalist, and a race scientist. A well-known figure in his own time, The Last Anglo-Jewish Gentleman restores him to his place in the history of British science and the British Jewish community.
Redcliffe Salaman was also a leading figure in the Anglo-Jewish community in the 20th century. At the same time, he was also an incisive critic of the changing character of that community. His groundbreaking book, The History and Social Influence of the Potato, first published in 1949 and in print ever since, is a classic in social history. His wife Nina was a feminist, poet, essayist, and translator of medieval Hebrew poetry. She was the first (and to this day, only) woman to deliver a sermon in an Orthodox synagogue in Britain.
The Last-Anglo Jewish Gentleman offers a compelling biography of a unique individual. It also provides insights into the life of English Jews during the late-19th and early-20th centuries and brings to light largely unknown controversies and tensions in Jewish life.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Note on Sources
Family Tree
Introduction
1. Family Background and Early Years
2. Medicine and Marriage
3. Homestall
4. Race Science
5. Nina and the Hebrew Poets
6. World War I and the Land of Israel
7. The Home Front
8. Communal Work and Personal Loss
9. The Jewish Health Organization of Great Britain
10. Conflicts at Home and Abroad
11. The Potato Book
12. Communal Gadfly
Afterword
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
