Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction. Why is This Town Different from All the Rest?
1. The Birth of Old Odessa
2. Crafting Old Odessa
3. The Battle for Old Odessa
4. Revival and Survival
5. Rewriting Old Odessa
Epilogue. The End of Old Odessa
Notes
Bibliography
Odessa—celebrated and vilified as a Jewish city of sin
Jarrod Tanny is Assistant Professor of History and Block Distinguished Fellow of History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Tanny delivers readers an inspired analysis of Odessa's role in
Soviet history as a city that fueled cultural irreverence
throughout the humorlessness of the Tsarist and Soviet ages.
*newbooksinrussianstudies.com*
[T]he book is a wonderful read, deeply infused with erudition and
literary sensitivity, and an important complement to our
understanding of Odessa and Russian Jewish history.
*Marginalia*
Outstanding . . . This is a delightfully written work of serious
scholarship about urban rogues and schnorrers who transmitted an
aspect of Jewish identity and culture into the broader Russian
cultural world.
*Jewish Book World*
Just as the myth of Odessa crossed the boundaries between social
classes and linguistic groups in Russian and Soviet societies, this
book about the myth is bound to build important bridges between
scholars of Yiddish and Russian cultures. In this lies its most
important value.
*Slavic Review*
Tanny's goal—and accomplishment—is to trace the history of the
Odessa myth in all its variegated aspects. To do so, he has
marshaled an impressive body of primary and secondary sources . . .
[T]his is a book that will inform (and entertain) both the student
of modern Russian history and the intellectually curious lay
reader.
*American Historical Review*
This meticulously researched book shows that the myth of old Odessa
survived the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalinism, World War Two, and
the stagnation of the Brezhnev era. It shows that paradoxically,
the collapse of the Soviet Union has seen the revival of old
Odessa. The myth of Odessa and its golden age has become part of
the realm of collective memory.
*Journal of Modern Jewish Studies*
Books on humor do not always make for an enjoyable read. This one
does. The case of the Odessa myth is a refreshing and funny account
of the power of satire in a closed society and its relevance to the
forging of popular historical images. Tanny's study reminds us that
the Soviet state and its institutions were not the only actors on
the historical stage. . . . It will appeal to scholars interested
in the historical change in the image of Odessa as well as
historians of Soviet and Jewish humor.
*East European Jewish Affairs*
Jarrod Tanny has written an entertaining study of the myth of old
Odessa: his book is serious and funny, informative and amusing,
witty and well written . . . . This is a very good book.
*SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL*
In this lively cultural study, Jarrod Tanny explores the origins,
development, and echoes of a cultural trope: the myth of old
Odessa, 'an improbable fusion of criminality, Jewishness, and
humor'.
*The Russian Review*
[Odessa] A den of iniquity in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it
attracted adventurers seeking wealth and pleasures. Much like
storied Shanghai and New Orleans, it was a haven for criminals,
smugglers, pimps and prostitutes. But above all, Odessa . . was
perceived as a metropolis 'overrun and governed by Jewish gangsters
and swindlers,' writes Jarrod Tanny in City of Rogues and
Schnorrers . . . Tanny tells this story lucidly and
authoritatively.
*SheldonKirshner.com*
I can honestly say this is a book that a non-scholar can
appreciate. The author traces Odessa's politics and fortunes
through the joke. You will not stop laughing even if you have never
heard of Odessa.
*Polin*
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