Culture

We Have Arrived.


I just wanted to share with the entire world that I am reading a Yiddish novel from 1868. In its Hakdoma, there is a reference to the heroism and cruelty of the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution, which established Haiti as a free country for former African slaves, was on the minds of modernizing Eastern European Jews. Whaaaaaaaat?
Fancy That.

2 thoughts on “We Have Arrived.

  1. Actually, there seems to be a fair bit of evidence that the Haitian Revolution was on everybody’s minds in the early and mid 1800’s. Kant called it the greatest sign of Enlightenment, and there’s some new scholarship showing that Hegel was reading and thinking about it. This is fascinating and cool, and reminds me of reports I’ve read of a Yiddish translation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin–in which they all convert to Judaism at the end.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.