The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and the Transformation of European Political Thought

Abstract

Following The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought (Cambridge, 2004), Erik Nelson tackles the Hebraic influences upon the formation of early-modern political philosophy in this new book. This slim volume (139 pp. and 70 pp. of ample notes) is practically a collection of three separate studies, with one bold agenda. Until quite recently the sources of early-modern political philosophy were identified mostly with the Greco-Roman and the Christian heritage. The possible Hebraic (or Judaic) sources were completely neglected. Scholars of the last generation (among them the author of this review), and new periodicals such as Jewish Political Studies Review and later Hebraic Political Studies, have broadened our horizons both concerning political aspects in the history of Jewish thought and the possible influences of Jewish sources upon the emergence of Renaissance and early-modern political thought. This book is another important contribution to this effort. Moreover, after a stream of papers devoted to the history of the Jewish influences, this is the first book fully devoted to this subject.

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