1st Edition

The Jew in the American War Novel 1920s–2020s

By Ohad Reznick Copyright 2025
178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

This is the first book of its kind to provide an analysis of the representation of Jews in American war novels throughout the long twentieth century. This study delineates the intricate relationship between Jews and wars. Are Jews depicted as draft dodgers or heroes in American war fiction? How do Jewish soldiers cope with anti-Semitism in war novels? Do Jewish women contribute to the war... Read more

Acknowledgments

 

Introduction: The Relationship between Jewish Americans and Wars

                                                                         

 

Chapter 1: The Interwar Period–the Jew as an Unmasculine Man who Evades the War           

            Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises: The Jew as Imitating the Real Male                           

John Dos Passos' Three Soldiers: The "Kike" who is Proven Right                                 

Chapter 2: The 1940s–1950s – Oversimplifying the Jewish American Conflict                             

            Irwin Shaw's The Young Lions: Anti-Semitism as a Threat to Democracy                              

Wasteland: The Merger of Jewish and Non-Jewish Blood   

That Winter: Revisiting Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

                                         

Chapter 3: The 1960s–1980s—Jewish Wars                                                                              

War and Remembrance: WWII and Saving Jews                                                          

Crescent City: A Jewish War Against Slavery and Chauvinism                                       

Chapter 4: The 1990s2020s—The Jews as Separate from Other Americans                            

            All Other Nights: A Clash Between the Two Identities                                                       

The Living and the Lost: The Holocaust as Shaping Jewish Identity                               

 

Epilogue: Blood, Draft Evasion, and Anti-Semitism in The Human Stain

 

Index                

                                                                                   

Biography

Ohad Reznick teaches American literature at Tel Aviv University and Ben‑Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of Imagined Non‑Jews: Jews Passing as Gentiles in Post‑WWII and Multicultural American Fiction (2024). His articles appear in MELUS, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory.

"In these troubled times, this book’s exploration of the portrayal of changing relationships between Jewish and American identities in novels about war across the twentieth century, and its focus on positive representations of Jewish characters in fiction, is most timely."

Anthony Lake, University of Roehampton

 

"What does it mean to be a Jew, an American, and a soldier? Ohad Reznick offers original insight into a century of fiction to re-examine ideas of Jewish identity."

 

 Raffaele Esposito, University of Naples L’Orientale