2013 Recipient

The Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History, established in 2009 and sponsored by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the field of history in the previous calendar year.

Winner: Scott Ury
Title: Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry (Stanford University Press)

Displaying an impressive mastery of a range of sources, Scott Ury offers a sophisticated analysis of how Warsaw Jewry’s engagement with the modern city and experiences with participatory politics, particularly in the aftermath of the upheaval of 1905, gave birth to institutions and behaviors that defined Jewish society and politics for the remainder of the twentieth century. Traditional Jewish communal institutions and practices yielded to new forms of collective behavior such as coffee houses, popular theater, and the Yiddish press that articulated and protected Jewish interests. The emergence of civil society and a public sphere created distinct politically mobilized communities divided by ethnicity and language between Jews and Poles. Barricades and Banners enhances our understanding of how modern political movements and ideologies offered Jews (and Poles) tools to weather the challenges of life in an urban metropolis. Ury engages a variety of methodological and historiographical literatures that underscore the impact of modernity on European Jews and demonstrates how 1905 was a watershed in terms of politicizing ethnic differences.

Honorable Mention: Jonathan Bolton and Christina Ezrahi