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Kenneth Stow, Francesca Trivellato. The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2009. Pp. xiii, 470. $50.00, The American Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 3, June 2010, Pages 812–814, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.3.812-a
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Francesca Trivellato's book accomplishes what so many who study the history of the Jews try to do. She has written a history whose principal subject is Jews but that fully qualifies as a historical work that enlightens us about a period as a whole. This is a far more difficult task than it may seem. Jewish history challenges the scholar to write both vertically and horizontally at the same time. One could study the history of Jewish commerce in a neat vertical casing: in the early Middle Ages, Jews were merchants (although there were fewer than often thought); they passed on to being moneylenders in the High Middle Ages (if only for the lack of choice) and then reemerged as merchants in the early modern period. In all three cases, they were accused of monopolizing the field and exploiting clients. To study Jewish economics this way is, of course, a study of attitudes toward Jews. It says little about commerce and its role in the larger economy. Going the other way, one could study Jewish merchants in the early modern period as just another brand of dealer in the growing Atlantic or other maritime trade, ignoring Jewish specificities and again ending with a half picture.
