On Book Reviews II
One of the reasons that I decided to write a few postings on book reviews was a article written by the late Guido Kisch. [1] Kisch was the author of many important books and articles, among them The Jews in Medieval Germany. In addition to writing articles and books, during his years in America Kisch edited a journal called Historia Judaica. In the last issue of the journal Kisch wrote “An Historical Account and Reminiscences of the Retiring Editor” (vol. 23, April-October 1961). The article is a fascinating description by a man whose yearnings for the lost world of European Jewish scholarship are evident, of an attempt to recreate in a different time and place that intellectual world. In his description of his years as editor, he has the following very interesting, still relevant, and brutally honest, things to say about book reviews and reviewers.
Book reviews and reviewers form a chapter of their own, on which many observations could be made. Criticism and unbiased appraisal of publications can be made only by scholars in the same fields who-and this is an ideal never to be attained-know at least as much about the subject of the work to be reviewed as the author. Obviously, even the most conscientious and cautious editor is confronted with extremely difficult problems in entrusting a review to an expert in order to obtain a valuable piece of work and possibly even a contribution to the scholastic discussion, and also that justice may be done to the author’s work. At the time of the initial years of Historia Judaica scholarly criticism in general and especially in Jewish history had not yet developed satisfactorily on the American scene. For the most part, reviews were published only several years after the book had appeared. They were often written by incompetent people who, at best, offered a more or less accurate abstract of the contents of the books under review. Generally speaking, exaggerated praise was heaped on an author, perhaps a personal friend of the reviewer, not infrequently for an utterly insignificant product of his pen. When reviews with well documented criticism began to appear in Historia Judaica -in one outstanding case plagiarism was discovered and proved-the editor became the target of attack and persecution that continued for years. Even authors whose books received recognition or praise were often not satisfied because they expected still higher praise and more recognition in the form of undue and unworthy exaggeration. In this connection the editor had to withstand much antagonism, but he never deserted the principles of honest scholarship which he had adopted, in spite of the fact that he acquired some lifetime enemies and had to sacrifice much valuable time and effort in corresponding with offended and dissatisfied authors whose books had been reviewed.A problem of no less magnitude and seriousness was the appointment of qualified and competent reviewers. Unfortunately, to this very day, some scholars do not feel the responsibility of promoting research by reviewing publications in their own field; indeed, they consider book reviewing a waste of time and beneath their dignity. I shall never forget the look of mixed pity and contempt I received from a scholar considered in New York one of the greatest, when I most innocently dared to ask him for a book review for Historia Judaica. Others accepted review copies but never turned in reviews. Still others were at least honest enough to admit frankly that they had no intention of making enemies by book reviewing…Fortunately, things have changed considerably in the course of the last two decades, although the misheberach type of review has not yet completely disappeared from Jewish journals. Perhaps some share in the improvement may be credited to Historia Judaica.
Kisch ends his article by saying, the he “sincerely hopes that the fruits of scholarship in Jewish history deposited in the volumes of Historia Judaica will be useful to future scholars and stimulate them in their research work. Sadly enough, Historia Judaica ceased to be published soon after Kisch wrote these words, with Kisch also returning to Europe and then teaching for some years at the University of Basel.
[1] An English translation of this German Wikipedia page is a bit funny at times.