This work reveals the role, contribution and modus operandi of Zionist private enterprise in the Jewish rural and urban settlement of Palestine between the start of the century and the outbreak of the First World War. The book demonstrates that the role of private enterprise was extensive both in terms of land purchases and in terms of settlement activities. The author recapitulates these efforts, categorizes these activities as unique and identifies the underlying rationale of "national capitalism". The private investors and companies employed economic-commercial means to secure national-Zionist objectives. They were willing to be content with limited profits and received in compensation the emotional gains accruing from their contribution to building the Land of Israel.

Pawnbroking was a primary source of income for mediaeval European Jews. The book describes the process mediating the need to make a living and the need to maintain the purity of the Halacha, while examining the similarities and differences between the sages of Ashkenaz and the sages of Provence and Spain.

The history of population is fundamental to the understanding of changes in society. Nowhere is this truer than in the United States, which throughout its history has experienced vast changes in population movement, distribution, and composition. In Structures of American Social History Walter Nugent grapples with the "facts" of population and develops a new perspective on American history. Nugent demonstrates how population trends intertwine with social and economic history and with the values and beliefs of society. Historical patterns projected into the twenty-first century yield a somewhat startling conclusion: Nugent offers a view of the future that is far more sanguine than the views of those who see only doom and decline in "the graying of America."