Ben Waber reviewed World of Our Fathers by Irving Howe
A Powerful, Expansive Look at Eastern European Jews in America
5 stars
I'm biased because this book is about my ancestors, but this is an incredible work of scholarship that is still relevant today both because of the insight it offers into the American Jewish community and the challenges immigrants face more broadly. Beginning in the 1880s in Eastern Europe and ending in the 1970s, Howe traces the factors that pushed Jews to the US, the deplorable conditions they experienced on the trip over and upon arrival, and their gradual but unique integration into American life. As one might expect from a book that clocks in at 768 pages, there is ample room to cover nearly every facet of Jewish life in the US. Later chapters particularly resonated with me personally and felt deeply true of my own experience. Highly recommend
I'm biased because this book is about my ancestors, but this is an incredible work of scholarship that is still relevant today both because of the insight it offers into the American Jewish community and the challenges immigrants face more broadly. Beginning in the 1880s in Eastern Europe and ending in the 1970s, Howe traces the factors that pushed Jews to the US, the deplorable conditions they experienced on the trip over and upon arrival, and their gradual but unique integration into American life. As one might expect from a book that clocks in at 768 pages, there is ample room to cover nearly every facet of Jewish life in the US. Later chapters particularly resonated with me personally and felt deeply true of my own experience. Highly recommend