The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein

The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein

Around 70 CE most Jews were farmers. By 1492 they were overwhelmingly merchants, physicians and financiers, and their population had fallen sharply. The usual explanation is persecution.

Two economists argue it was primarily a religious decision — the requirement that every Jewish father educate his son — which imposed a heavy cost on farmers, and paid enormously once literacy became valuable in trade.

A striking piece of economic history, rigorous with the data and genuinely surprising.

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