In the third part of the nineteenth century, social scientific branches of learning such as sociology and anthropology gradually established themselves as academic disciplines. The transformation of the human sciences into the social sciences was closely linked to attempts to develop and implement methods for dealing with social tensions and the rationalization of society. This book discusses the sociological-philosophical paradigm of Georg Simmel and the anthropological paradigm of Franz Boas'€"both of whom played a crucial role in shaping the course of academic social science'€"and compares their respective general epistemological considerations and their notions of assimilation. Morris-Reich demonstrates that the different appreciations of the Jews' contemporary situation and the different prognoses of their future in general society are closely linked to internal disciplinary-paradigmatic considerations. This conceptual model gives a new "key" to pivotal issues in recent Jewish history and in the history of the social sciences.