Review by Choice Review
Beller's work attempts to give substance to a long-held article of faith among observers of Viennese high culture, i.e., that the many levels of Jewish participation stamped a peculiar character upon the whole phenomenon. According to Beller, the "Jewishness" of Viennese culture was neither accidental nor incidental. He shows that the educated liberal bourgeoisie that produced both the cultural elite and the audience for its works was largely Jewish in composition, although Jews composed only 10 to 12 of the population of the city. Consciousness of Jewishness, even a negative consciousness, Beller argues, was central to those of Jewish descent and the highly assimilated. It marked them and their cultural activism, and hence it will not do to ignore the massive Jewish presence in fin de siecle Vienna or to dismiss it as immaterial, as some interpreters have done. Beller also takes issue with those who maintain that Viennese culture was an exclusively Jewish affair. His book is balanced, impressively informed, and provocative, but the esoteric nature of the subject makes it accessible only to specialists and a restricted circle of aficionados. -R. S. Levy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
