No Return - (Histories of Economic Life) by Rowan Dorin

Book Synopsis

A groundbreaking new history of the shared legacy of expulsion among Jews and Christian moneylenders in late medieval Europe
Winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, Canadian Historical Association

Beginning in the twelfth century, Jewish moneylenders increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of European authorities, who denounced the evils of usury as they expelled Jews from their lands. Yet Jews were not alone in supplying coin and credit to needy borrowers. Across much of Western Europe, foreign Christians likewise engaged in professional moneylending, and they too faced repeated threats of expulsion from the communities in which they settled. No Return examines how mass expulsion became a pervasive feature of European law and politics--with tragic consequences that have reverberated down to the present.

Drawing on unpublished archival evidence ranging from fiscal ledgers and legal opinions to sermons and student notebooks, Rowan Dorin traces how an association between usury and expulsion entrenched itself in Latin Christendom from the twelfth century onward. Showing how ideas and practices of expulsion were imitated and repurposed in different contexts, he offers a provocative reconsideration of the dynamics of persecution in late medieval society.

Uncovering the protean and contagious nature of expulsion, No Return is a panoramic work of history that offers new perspectives on Jewish-Christian relations, the circulation of norms and ideas in the age before print, and the intersection of law, religion, and economic life in premodern Europe.

Review Quotes

"Innovative. . . . No Return will be central to all future discussions of medieval Jewish history, as well as to the economic, political, ecclesiastical, and legal history of later medieval Europe."---Sara Lipton, American Historical Review

"Winner of the Salo W. Baron Prize, American Academy for Jewish Research"

"A remarkable book. . . . [No Return] is one of the most compelling, learned, and creatively argued revisionist studies I have ever read and firmly establishes Rowan Dorin as one of the most promising medieval historians working today."---Thomas W. Barton, Speculum

"Winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, Canadian Historical Association"

"In this pioneering work, Rowan Dorin pulls back the curtain regarding Jewish dominance of money lending in late medieval Europe. . . . A valuable addition to academic collections supporting studies in medieval European history."---Randall C. and Anne-Marie Belinfante, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

"Until now, however, the history of the political practice of group expulsion--and of the nexus between group expulsions and accusations of usury--was not understood. No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe breaks new ground in elucidating these key facets of the Middle Ages. In the process, it transforms understandings of Jewish expulsions, medieval moneylending, and the legal and theological discourses that responded to and shaped new political practices and social realities."---Paola Tartakoff, Journal of Church and State

"Winner of the Margaret Wade Labarge Prize, Canadian Society of Medievalists"

"Winner of the Pacific Coast Branch Book Award, American Historical Association"

"There is much to learn from this original and engaging study."---Thomas A. Fudge, Journal of Religious History

"Brilliant, illuminating. . . . this is a book that will be studied for a long time to come."---David d'Avray, Reviews in History

"Original [and] scholarly."---Jamin Andreas Hübner, EH.Net

"This solid work of historical analysis will long remain an important contribution to the history of medieval expulsions . . . [and] it is an exemplar of how to critically think about and use sources."-- "Choice"

About the Author

Rowan Dorin is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University.