This book deals with two remarkable events--the worldwide transformations of the Jews in the modern age and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language. It is a book about social and cultural history addressed not only to the professional historian, and a book about Jews addressed not only to Jewish readers. It tries to rethink a wide field of cultural phenomena and present the main ideas to the intelligent reader, or, better, present a "family picture" of related and contiguous ideas. Many names and details are mentioned, which may not all be familiar to the uninitiated; their function is to provide some concrete texture for this dramatic story, but the focus is on the story itself. "[An] altogether fascinating book. . . . [It is] among the most fascinating studies of the Hebrew revival to have emerged in recent years."--"Modernism "With his customary versatility and lucidity Professor Harshav has given us in  Language in Time of Revolution  a host of new and provocative insights into modern Jewish history. The modern Jewish revolution has been multi-faceted and profound. This book is an outstanding attempt to juxtapose the revolution in Jewish life with that of the Hebrew language in such a way that each informs our understanding of the other.  Language in Time of Revolution  should be mandatory reading for anyone prepared to confront and appreciate just how deep and radical that revolution has been."--Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Columbia University "A wise, original, and stimulating book . . . on shaping of modern Jewish culture. . . . Humane, deeply erudite, and very satisfying."--Steven Zipperstein, Stanford University "The crisscrossing among the discourses of literature, ideology, history, and linguistics makes for a heady intellectual experience. . . . Harshav writes with great authority and verve. . . . His discussions are a model of clarity."--Alan Mintz, Brandeis University  "With his customary versatility and lucidity Professor Harshav has given us in  Language in Time of Revolution  a host of new and provocative insights into modern Jewish history. The modern Jewish revolution has been multi-faceted and profound. This book is an outstanding attempt to juxtapose the revolution in Jewish life with that of the Hebrew language in such a way that each informs our understanding of the other.  Language in Time of Revolution  should be mandatory reading for anyone prepared to confront and appreciate just how deep and radical that revolution has been."--Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Columbia University "A wise, original, and stimulating book . . . on shaping of modern Jewish culture. . . . Humane, deeply erudite, and very satisfying."--Steven Zipperstein, Stanford University "The crisscrossing among the discourses of literature, ideology, history, and linguistics makes for a heady intellectual experience. . . . Harshav writes with great authority and verve. . . . His discussions are a model of clarity."--Alan Mintz, Brandeis University  Benjamin Harshav , was a translator, poet, and scholar of Hebrew and Yiddish literature. Harshav was and the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Yale University, and in 1992, a professor of Slavic languages and literature. Language in Time of Revolution By Benjamin Harshav University of California Press Copyright © 1993 Benjamin Harshav All right reserved. ISBN: 0520079582 One Transformations: Extrinsic and Intrinsic As we look around us in contemporary America, we see large numbers of "Jews" or persons of Jewish origin (many of whom shed their recognizably Jewish names) in such areas as law, medicine, psychoanalysis, mathematics, theoretical physics, economics, linguistics, the academy in general, as well as in the communications and entertainment industries, in trade and political thought, and very few among farmers, industrial workers, or soldiers. A similar picture is revealed if we observe the small Jewish populations of England and France today, even the Soviet Union (despite long-standing attempts to bar Jews from higher education and positions of power); and certainly if we look at the cultures of Germany and Soviet Russia in the 1920s. With some exaggeration, we may say that, if observed as one social group, such "Jews" derive from a religion but strive to the condition of a "class," occupying large parts of certain social domains and professions with no proportionality to their percentage in the population as a whole. As is well known, this situation resulted in important contributions made by individuals of Jewish origin to modern culture and science. After Hitler's racism, especially vis-à-vis the Jews, this is a sensitive issue, though it serves as a favorite topic in Jewish insider whispering. But the striking statistical imbalance, often accumulating in a very short period, and despite most individuals' fully assimilated behavior and sincere professionalism, make those "Non-Jewish Jews" (as Isaac Deutsche