Dispersion

Stéphane Dufoix is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. He has published on exile politics and diasporas (including Diasporas, University of California Press, 2008). He is working on a historical sociology of the concept of globalization.

[…] A remarkably erudite scholar, Dufoix […] describes the "social, political, intellectual and economic patterns" that have "rendered (the term) richer, with multiple and often contradictory significations. […] An impressive and, indeed, unique book that will assuredly serve as the definitive work on the history of the frequently invoked term "diaspora.""Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries.D. Altschiller, Boston University, CHOICE, August 2017"With a breadth and depth of knowledge that is simply unrivaled, Dufoix uncovers the genealogy of diaspora from its ancient origins to its extraordinary proliferation in the contemporary era. A work of massive erudition and ambition, The Dispersion is by far the most original, comprehensive, and exciting account of its subject. It is hard to see how this book could ever be surpassed." – Kevin Kenny, Professor of History, Boston College, author of Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction"Old and complex terms like diaspora migrate and mutate. Stéphane Dufoix has tenaciously revealed the social, historical and semantic metamorphoses of diaspora over the last 2300 years. His brilliant and definitive account will excite all scholars in the field of diaspora studies." – Robin Cohen, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford, author of Global Diasporas: An Introduction

• Acknowledgements ... ixList of Maps, Illustrations, Figures and Tables ... xiIntroduction. Towards a Historical Socio-semantics of a Word in Vogue ... 1Part 1: From the Word to the ConceptIntroduction to Part 1 ... 231 The Word of the Septuagint ... 272 The Religious Space of Dispersion ... 763 Towards a Secular Concept ... 134Part 2: Cham Dispersed: From the Jewish Model to the ReversalIntroduction to Part 2 ... 1814 Next Year in Ethiopia: Blacks at the Jewish Mirror ... 1855 A Name of One’s Own: The Emergence of the Black/African Diaspora ... 2316 The Reversal ... 279Part 3: The Name of the GlobalIntroduction to Part 3 ... 3377 Constructing the Field of Diaspora Studies ... 3408 The Critical Turn ... 3929 States and Their Diasporas ... 444Conclusion. Two Cats and Three Demons ... 495Bibliography ... 501Index of Names ... 581