Emile and Isaac Pereire

Bankers, Socialists and Sephardic Jews in nineteenth-century France

By: Helen M. Davies, David Hopkin (Editor)

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Paperback | 6 April 2016 | Edition Number 1

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282 Pages

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21.6 x 13.8 x 1.6

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Emile (1800'"75) and Isaac Pereire (1806'"80) were pivotal and sensational figures, their lives and careers a lens through which to re-examine the history of France in the nineteenth century. They were among the first generation of Jews emancipated by the French Revolution. Significant Saint-Simonians, they contributed to its philosophy of financial and economic reform. They were among the first to implement the new rail technology in France and their Saint-Simonian understanding that major railway development required investment capital on an unprecedented scale saw them launch the first investment bank of any size in Europe, the Cr©dit Mobilier. This became the holding company for a series of significant enterprises in which it had major investments. The Pereires came to stand behind banks and railways throughout Europe and in the Ottoman Empire and were integral to Napoleon III's foreign as well as domestic policies, major players in France's industrialisation and the modernisation of its banking system.

This is their first biography in English. Commencing with their early lives in the Sephardic community of Bordeaux, it follows their introduction to Saint-Simonianism in Restoration Paris, their early careers as railways entrepreneurs, and the dizzying heights they reached ultimately in Napoleon III's Second Empire. It is equally a social and cultural history of Jews in France, addressing the means through which the Pereires managed their business empire and the role played by family life in its success. It will appeal to teachers and students interested in French and Jewish history, and to the general reader of biography.

Industry Reviews

'...the topics it covers cannot help but be of interest to those who study economic and financial development, the Industrial Revolution, entrepreneurship and the history of economic thought...Helen Davies' monograph is the first biography of the brothers Pereire in English and it makes extensive use of archival sources...Her book serves as an interesting complement to more standard economic histories of nineteenth-century France.'
Esther Redmount, Department of Economics, Colorado College for EH. Net January 2016

'Helen M. Davies's book constitutes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the development of France during the longue dur©e. Those seeking insight into the economic history of the July Monarchy and Second Empire--as well as aspects of Sephardic family and private life--will learn much from the lives of Emile and Isaac Pereire.'
Jeffrey Haus, Kalamazoo College, H-France Review Vol. 16 (July 2016), No. 111

'Helen M. Davies provides a very useful, state-of-the-art and nuanced portrait of the lives of Emile and Isaac Pereire, brothers and prominent bankers in a changing nineteenth-century France on her path to industrialisation ... Davies provides a vivid portrait of their habits and strategies to emerge as eminent financiers and entrepreneurs convinced that economic competence and abilities were to be coupled with a strong vision of the future.'
Giandomenico Piluso, University of Siena, Business History, vol. 59, issue 7, 2017

'In her deeply researched examination of the lives and relationships of these exceptional individuals, Davies chronicles the influences that shaped their worldview and enabled their success, as well as the influence that they in turn exerted over their world. Her study illuminates the networks of influence and innovation within which they operated and through which they rose to the top of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie [...] Davies's work is meticulous, well written, and judiciously concise.'
Naomi J. Andrews, Santa Clara University, Journal of Modern History, Vol. 91, No. 1

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