Walter P. Zenner is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, also published by SUNY Press
Throughout the world, certain ethnic groups have made a living through trade and have found a place for themselves in their societies' middle strata. At times, these 'middlemen minorities' have aroused the envy of their neighbors and been subjected to a variety of persecutions. In this book, Walter P. Zenner examines explanations for this phenomenon and analyzes such groups as the Jews, the Chinese, the Scots, and the South Asians abroad.