Demographic Avant-Garde. Jews in Bohemia between the Enlightenment and the Shoah

Demographic Avant-Garde documents the unique demographic behavior of Jews in Bohemia from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It examines what made Bohemian Jews true forerunners of the demographic transition in Europe and explains why this occurred. The book analyzes Jews’ main demographic processes and their interpretation in a larger social-historical and international context as well as the socio-economic position of Jews within Czech society. It critically evaluates the reliability and completeness of available historical data sources, and summarizes a rich trove of primary data sources. Demographic Avant-Garde highlights the role of human capital, culture, the legal environment and economic development in precipitating a rapid demographic transition. It is recommended reading for those with interest in social demography, social history, demographic transition, and the modern Jewish experience in Europe.

Endorsments:

A ground-breaking work of demographic and social history based on a painstaking combing of archival material, careful quantitative analysis, and originality of argument. Demographic Avant-Garde changes our understanding of Jewish life in the Bohemian lands in fundamental ways and will be required reading for serious students of the modern Jewish experience.

Hillel J. Kieval, Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought, Washington University in St. Louis

Demographic Avant-Garde is a definitive work in Jewish population studies and in the demographic history of an important area of the world  … a model for the analysis of social and demographic changes of one interesting and important European sub-population as well a model of more general social demographic changes in the transition to social and economic modernization.

Calvin Goldscheider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies, Brown University
 

Jana Vobecká’s book makes an important contribution to our general understanding of the drivers of demographic transition. It nicely complements earlier studies in the context of the Princeton European Fertility Project, which could not identify such distinct sub-populations. In my reading of this important book, the higher education of Jews was a key reason for their earlier and faster demographic transition.

Wolfgang Lutz, Founding Director, Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital

Jews in Central-Western Europe were among the extraordinary forerunners of a demographic transition … (that) gradually expanded to the rest of European societies, and eventually to the near totality of humankind. This study by Jana Vobecká skillfully explores how and why it all began in Bohemia… .

Sergio DellaPergola, Professor Emeritus, The Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem