European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750

What I learned from this book is that Jewish culture, as I have come to understand it now, was not a product of Western European socio-geographical historical idiosyncracies. This book details how Jewish people were forced to leave their homes in Spain, Portugal and increasingly all Western European countries. Two migration flows seem to have occurred: one into Northern Eastern Europe, one to the East of the Mediterranean. That is apparently where a major condensation of Jewish culture occurred. Other very interesting insights I gained deal with the role of money in medieval Europe, the stifling role of the Catholic church, the importance of kings and other absolute rulers, pathways of commerce and the role of old cities. Highly interesting.