Puritans in Babylon: The Ancient Near East and American Intellectual Life, 1880-1930
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
From the 1880s through the 1920s a motley collection of American scholars, soldiers of fortune, institutional bureaucrats, and financiers created the academic fields that give us our knowledge of the ancient Near East. Bruce Kuklick's new book begins with the story of the initial adventure of these determined investigators--a twelve-year dig near the Biblical Babylon, at Nippur, conducted at intervals from 1888 through 1900 and bankrolled by the Babylonian Exploration Fund. To unearth tens of thousands of cunneiform tablets, the leaders of this venture faced harsh living conditions in the desert and an academic war of each against all that was quickly begun at the site itself. As their knowledge increased, they risked their personal religious beliefs in the search for historical truth. Kuklick discusses their tribulations to illuminate two other contemporary developments: first, the maturation of the American university, particularly in contrast to its German counterpart; and second, the influence of religious-secular conflict on the ways in which Western scholarship appropriated or appreciated other cultures.
The Nippur expedition spawned unseemly (and entertaining) fights among the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Harvard, and Chicago for leadership in the study of ancient Near East--not to mention disagreements with their own developing museums and an international scandal called the Hilprecht controversy. More significant than these quarrels was the concern for the meaning of history displayed in this period of Near Eastern scholarship. The field was linked to Biblical criticism and Judeo-Christian interests, and many of the orientalists originally possessed strong religious commitments--which some put aside as they struggled for objectivity. As recent critics have shown, "orientalism" was an example of the West's ability to appropriate the "other" for its own purposes. However, Kuklick's study demonstrates that the censure of orientalism hinges on modes of argumentation that scholars of the ancienet Near East helped to legitimate, and at no small cost to themselves.
Bruce Kuklick is Killbrew Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976 (Princeton), Churchmen and Philosophers: Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey, and The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge Massachusetts, 1860-1930.
Originally published in 1996.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Read more from Bruce Kuklick
Fascism Comes to America: A Century of Obsession in Politics and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlind Oracles: Intellectuals and War from Kennan to Kissinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Puritans in Babylon
Related ebooks
Hard sell: Advertising, affluence and transatlantic relations, c. 1951–69 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Dominion Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrowing Gardens, Building Power: Food Justice and Urban Agriculture in Brooklyn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Arkansas: Persistence in the Midst of Ruin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remembering Lancaster County: Stories from Pennsylvania Dutch Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of the University of Manchester, 1973–90 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPopped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorwich in the Gilded Age: The Rose City's Millionaires' Triangle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road: Dreams of Linking North and South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlibis of Empire: Henry Maine and the Ends of Liberal Imperialism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women drinking out in Britain since the early twentieth century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Economy of British America, 1607-1789 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves: Colonial America and the Indo-Atlantic World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"Pedlar in Divinity": George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737-1770 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Science Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Constructing Scientific Communities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndigenous Life around the Great Lakes: War, Climate, and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Atlantic Economy during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Organization, Operation, Practice, and Personnel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChop Suey and Sushi from Sea to Shining Sea: Chinese and Japanese Restaurants in the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaints and Strangers: New England in British North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Religious Justification For War In American History. A Savage Embrace: The Pequot War 1636-37 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Now, Pay Later?: Sex And Religion In The Fifties And Sixties Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Months in a Sneak-Box A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish civic society at the end of empire: Decolonisation, globalisation, and international responsibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, January 1886 Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, January, 1886 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScience and the American Century: Readings from "Isis" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPuritanism in north-west England: A regional study of the diocese of Chester to 1642 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire and mobility in the long nineteenth century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Middle Eastern History For You
America is the True Old World, Volume II: The Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Promised Land: the triumph and tragedy of Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sumerians: A History From Beginning to End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Complete Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Myths About Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Code of Hammurabi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle for Justice in Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel and Palestine: The Complete History [2019 Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palestine Peace Not Apartheid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of the Jewish People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Palestine: A Socialist Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Puritans in Babylon
0 ratings0 reviews