The chosen few : how education shaped Jewish history, 70-1492 / Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-316) and index.

Ch. 1. 70 CE-1492 : How many Jews were there, and where and how did they live? -- From Jesus to Muhammad (I CE-622) : a world of farmers ; From Muhammad to Hulagu Khan (622-1258) : farmers to merchants ; From Hulagu Khan to Tomás de Torquemada (1258-1492) : the end of the Golden Age ; Jewish history, 70 CE-1492 : puzzles -- Ch. 2. Were the Jews a persecuted minority? -- Restrictions on Jewish economic activities ; Taxation discrimination ; Physical versus portable human capital ; Self-segregated religious minority ; The economics of small minorities ; Summary -- Ch. 3. The people of the Book, 200 BCE-200 CE -- The two pillars of Judaism from Ezra to Hillel (500-50 BCE) : the temple and the Torah ; The lever of Judaism : education as a religious norm ; The destruction of the second temple : from ritual sacrifices to Torah reading and study ; The legacy of Rabbinic Judaism : the Mishna and universal primary education, 10 CE-200 ; Judaism and education : the unique link in the world of Mishna -- Ch. 4. The economics of Hebrew literacy in a world of farmers -- Heterogeneity and the choices facing Jewish farmers circa 200 ; The economic theory : basic setup ; The economic theory : predictions ; Life in a village in the Galillee circa 200 through the lens of the theory ; Annex 4. A : Formal model of education and conversion of farmers -- Ch. 5. Jews in the Talmud Era, 200-650 : the chosen few -- An increasingly literate farming society ; Conversions of Jewish farmers ; Summary -- Ch. 6. From farmers to merchants, 750-1150 -- The economics of Hebrew literacy in a world of merchants ; The Golden Age of literate Jews in the Muslim caliphates ; Summary ; Annex 6. A : Formal model of education and conversion of merchants -- Ch. 7. Educated wandering Jews, 800-1250 -- Wandering Jews before Marco Polo ; Jewish migration within the Muslim caliphates ; Migration of Byzantine Jewry ; Jewish migration to and within Christian Europe ; Migration of the Jewish religious center ; Summary -- Ch. 8. Segregation or choice? From merchants to moneylenders, 1000-1500 -- The economics of money and credit in Medieval Europe ; Jewish prominence in moneylending : hypotheses ; The dynamics of Jewish moneylending in Medieval Europe ; Jewish moneylending in Medieval Italy : a detailed analysis ; Attitudes toward moneylending ; Facts and competing hypotheses ; From merchants to moneylenders : comparative advantage in complex intermediation ; Annex 8. A : The charter to the Jews of Vienna -- Ch. 9. The Mongol shock : can Judaism survive when trade and urban economies collapse? -- The Mongol conquest of the Muslim Middle East ; Socioeconomic conditions in the Middle East under the Mongols ; Jewish demography under Mongol and Mamluk rule : an experiment ; Why Judaism cannot survive when trade and urban economies collapse ; Summary -- Ch. 10. 1492 to today : open questions -- Portrait of world Jewry circa 1492 ; Jewish history, 70 CE-1492 : epilogue ; Trajectory of the Jewish people over the past 500 years ; Persistence of Jewish occupational structure.

In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? "The Chosen Few" presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history.

Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein show that, contrary to previous explanations, this transformation was driven not by anti-Jewish persecution and legal restrictions, but rather by changes within Judaism itself after 70 CE--most importantly, the rise of a new norm that required every Jewish male to read and study the Torah and to send his sons to school. Over the next six centuries, those Jews who found the norms of Judaism too costly to obey converted to other religions, making world Jewry shrink. Later, when urbanization and commercial expansion in the newly established Muslim Caliphates increased the demand for occupations in which literacy was an advantage, the Jews found themselves literate in a world of almost universal illiteracy. From then forward, almost all Jews entered crafts and trade, and many of them began moving in search of business opportunities, creating a worldwide Diaspora in the process.

The Chosen few offers a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights to the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.