Merchants of Oran

Joshua Schreier is Professor of History at Vassar College. He is the author of Arabs of the Jewish Faith (2010).

• Introduction 1. Mediterranean Oran2. Rebuilding Oran: Jews, Beys, and Commerce, 1792-18303. Making Money in a Time of Conquest4. Struggles For and Between the Merchants of Oran5. Jacob Lasry and the Business of Conquest6. From "Juifs de Gibraltar" and "Algerine Jews" to Israélites IndigènesConclusion: Moralities and Mythologies

"In this eloquent evocation of the era of French colonization of Algeria told through the life of a Jewish merchant and community leader, Jacob Lasry, Joshua Schreier challenges the monolithic French colonial representation of 'indigenous' Jews as oppressed, backwards, and isolated—awaiting to be emancipated—by revealing how Algeria's cosmopolitan Jews were active agents in shaping and transforming Jewish society under French rule in Algeria."—Daniel J. Schroeter, University of Minnesota "Against a rising tide of large-scale histories of empire and colonization, Joshua Schreier's book calls attention to the compelling perspectives offered by individuals. Brought to life through Schreier's tenacious research, the Jewish merchant Jacob Lasry and his contemporaries give the reader a refreshing vantage point from which to rethink French colonialism in the western Mediterranean."—Benjamin Claude Brower, The University of Texas at Austin "Joshua Schreier challenges the conventional narrative of Jewish emancipation in Algeria at the hands of the French that began with the conquest in 1830, continued through the Crémieux Decree, and ended with the departure of Algeria's Jews for l'Hexagone during the Algerian War....Schreier not only exposes the contradictions inherent in the new colonial order but also shows how the habits and practices of Oran's merchant elite formed prior to the French conquest allowed its members, like Lasry, to adapt and to thrive under the new regime."—Jonathan G. Katz, H-Judaic "This is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the history of Oran and its Jewish mercantile elite; a study that will interest scholars of empire, France, Jewish history, as well as those curious about the economies of port cities amid chaotic shifts in imperial governance."—Rachel E. Schley, H-France Review of Books "Schreier raises questions of great importance which deserve further exploration....[T]he history of French Algeria becomes much richer and much clearer when space is allowed for more than one perspective."—Julie Kalman, Journal of Modern History