An enlivening study of the era of the 'Enlightenment' when in Germany, Jewish cultural emancipation was proceeding apace despite continuing legal and social humiliations. . . . Its special appeal is to cover a neglected area of women's emancipation, that has been both regretted and admired, since the role the salonieres carved out for themselves, was so precarious and transitory. . . . It brings to the fore the neglected social history of an otherwise well-charted period.
Jewish Book News and Reviews
The book represents an important contribution on a subject that possesses intrinsic interest to student of both history and literature. It goes beyond its predecessors.
An interesting and amusing book about this era.
This impressive study tells us much that is interesting about the salons, while illuminating the whole period of which they were a part.
A rich, sophisticated, and original social history. It contributes to our knowledge and understanding of German history in a period whose social aspects have long been neglected by scholars. It also makes a significant contribution to Jewish history and to women's history.
New York University - Mary Nolan
For the first time a serious attempt is made to ascertain precisely why the salons came to exist at this time; why in Berlin; who frequented them; and for what reasons.
Journal of Jewish Studies
This is a lively and engaging tract . . . remarkably free from the zealousness, anxiety, and wordiness typical of the genre. . . . Hertz' book deserves widespread use, because it is a well-researched and thought-out treatise on an important chapter in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Germans and Jews in the two and a half decades, or so, that spelled the end of the enlightenment age and the beginning and initial highpoint of its counterpoise, the Romantic age, and finally the invasion of Prussia
Shofar - Napoleon. A. Tilo Alt
"An enlivening study of the era of the "Enlightenment" when in Germany, Jewish cultural emancipation was proceeding apace despite continuing legal and social humiliations. . . . The scholarly apparatus and studious analysis of material is . . . fascinating."—Stephen Massil, Jewish Book News and Review
Jewish Book News and Review - Stephen Massil
"Hertz has written an interesting book on a subject all too frequently overlooked by historians. . . . This book is a welcome addition to what is still an under-researched period, Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."—Marilyn Shevin Coetzee, The Historian
The Historian - Marilyn Shevin Coetzee
"This is a lively and engaging tract . . . remarkably free from the zealousness, anxiety, and wordiness typical of the genre. . . . Hertz’ book deserves widespread use, because it is a well-researched and thought-out treatise on an important chapter in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Germans and Jews in the two and a half decades, or so, that spelled the end of the enlightenment age and the beginning and initial highpoint of its counterpoise, the Romantic age, and finally the invasion of Prussia by Napoleon."—A. Tilo Alt, Shofar
"For the first time a serious attempt is made to ascertain precisely why the salons came to exist at this time; why in Berlin; who frequented them; and for what reasons."—Lionel Kochan, Journal of Jewish Studies
Journal of Jewish Studies - Lionel Kochan
"Here is an outstanding work of cultural history which brings an inexplicably neglected subject into sharp and vivid focus. . . . Crisply and readably written . . . a major contribution, not only to women’s studies, but to the sociology of the Enlightenment."—Ritchie Robertson, German History
German History - Ritchie Robertson
"Scholars will welcome this book as a model of the new social history. But college students and college-educated general readers will find the book attractive as well; if they prefer to avoid the charts and statistics, they can be charmed by the descriptions of the intellectual, personal, and sometimes amorous relationships in the salons themselves."—Gordon R. Mork, History
"This impressive study tells us much that is interesting about the salons, while illuminating the whole period of which they were a part."—Gordon A. Craig, New York Review of Books
New York Review of Books - Gordon A. Craig
"An interesting and amusing book about this era."—Alexander Zvielli, Jerusalem Post
Jerusalem Post - Alexander Zvielli
"Engaging, intelligently written. . . . The focus of her interest is the nine Jewish women who presided over salons, whose lives she has painstakingly reconstructed. . . . Hertz appears to be in full command of the dimensions of the salon phenomenon, including the social bases of intellectual life, the economic problems of the Prussian nobility, Berlin’s urban history, and the position of Berlin Jews. . . . The author has provided us a fine study of a limited subject which, fully and suggestively explored, illuminates the broad field around it."—Lloyd P. Gartner, Journal of Modern History
Journal of Modern History - Lloyd P. Gartner
