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Course Description

The Jew Who Would Be King recounts the extraordinary and troubling life of Nathaniel Isaacs, a 19th-century British Jew whose adventures spanned southern and West Africa. Shipwrecked on the coast of Zululand, Isaacs rose to prominence within the emerging Zulu kingdom before reinventing himself as a powerful trader and slaveholder in Sierra Leone. Drawing on extensive archival research and fieldwork, Adam Rovner reconstructs Isaacs’s transformation from outsider to colonial power broker. The book illuminates the moral ambiguities of the empire, exposing the intertwined dynamics of Jewish emancipation and antisemitism, slavery and abolition, and the racial ideologies that underpinned colonial rule.

Optional Reading: The Jew Who Would Be King: A True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Scandal in Victorian Africa, Adam Rovner

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Section Title
BOOK TALK: THE JEW WHO WOULD BE KING–A TRUE STORY ABOUT POWER, SLAVERY, AND IDENTITY IN COLONIAL AFRICA
Type
Remote
Days
W
Time (Eastern Time Zone)
7:00PM to 8:30PM
Dates
Sep 02, 2026
Schedule and Location
View Details
Contact Hours
1.5
Location
  • Off Campus Locations
Delivery Options
Remote  
Course Fee(s)
Course Fee non-credit $10.00
Potential Discount(s)
Drop Request Deadline
Aug 26, 2026
Transfer Request Deadline
Aug 26, 2026
Instructors
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