This book explores how fin de siècle Britain and Britons displaced spatially-charged apprehensions about imperial decline, urban decay and unpoliced borders onto Jews from Eastern and Central Europe migrating westwards. The myriad of representations of the ‘alien Jew’ that emerged were the product of, but also a catalyst for, a decisive moment in Britain’s legal history: the fight for the 1905 Aliens Act. Drawing upon a richly diverse collection of social and political commentary, including fiction, political testimony, ethnography, travel writing, journalism and cartography, this volume traces the shifting rhetoric around alien Jews as they journeyed from the Russian Pale of Settlement to London’s East End. By employing a unique and innovative reading of both the aliens debate and racialized discourse concerned with ‘the Jew’, Hannah Ewence demonstrates that ideas about ‘space’ and place’ critically informed how migrants were viewed; an argument which remains valid in today’s world.                      

“The Alien Jew in the British Imagination is a unique account of the complex perceptions surrounding fin de siècle mass migration which led to the first anti-immigration laws in Imperial Britain. Hannah Ewence takes seriously the different stages of migration opened up by the spatial dimensions of history and, in doing so, moves beyond the nation-state as an exclusive sphere of study. The migrant’s journey is traced from Eastern Europe to East London through the eyes of odd-ball social investigators, would-be ethnographers, campaigning journalists, popular novelists, and anti-alien activists. This is an attractively written and original study which discloses the ways in which transnational spaces of migration—from rural to urban; land to sea; township to “ghetto”—informs national prejudices and assumptions.” (Bryan Cheyette, University of Reading, UK)

“By putting the politics of space at the heart of the migrant experience in the fin-de-siècle, Hannah Ewence provides acompelling new interpretation of the multiple historical sites, settings and circumstances from which the ideological figures of “the Jew” was brought into public view. Her timely, thoughtful and wide-ranging book promises to change our understanding of migration “crises” past and present. Highly recommended.” (David Glover, University of Southampton, UK)

“This is a beautifully written and constructed study of how East European Jews were imagined in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Deftly applying concepts such as space and mobility, this rich study uses sources ranging from parliamentary papers through to novels to explore responses that ranged from outright hatred to romantic portrayals of the 'ghetto' whether in Eastern Europe or the East End of London. Subtle and sophisticated, Hannah Ewence's book shows the importance of her subject matter for all those interested in migration, British cultural, imperial and political history, and Jewish studies.”(Tony Kushner, University of Southampton, UK)

 

Explores the debates about citizenship, belonging and the state of the nation in Britain in response to an increase in immigration in the nineteenth century Offers a detailed examination of the territorial anxieties that critically informed how migrants were viewed along with timeless insights Examines a richly diverse collection of social and political commentary, including fiction, political testimony, ethnography, travel writing, journalism and cartography

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