A History of the Jews in America [Paperback]

Howard M. Sachar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1993

Spanning 350 years of Jewish experience in this country, A History of the Jews in America is an essential chronicle by the author of The Course of Modern Jewish History.

With impressive scholarship and a riveting sense of detail, Howard M. Sachar tells the stories of Spanish marranos and Russian refugees, of aristocrats and threadbare social revolutionaries, of philanthropists and Hollywood moguls. At the same time, he elucidates the grand themes of the Jewish encounter with America, from the bigotry of a Christian majority to the tensions among Jews of different origins and beliefs, and from the struggle for acceptance to the ambivalence of assimilation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Monumental in scope and depth, this vibrantly detailed chronicle sweeps from New Amsterdam of 1654, where Brazilian Jewish refugees established a beachhead in the future New York, to the 1980s campaign to resettle Soviet Jews in the United States. In the most comprehensive and revealing account to date of the saga of American Jewry, George Washington University historian Sachar explores how Jews faced the challenge of preserving their historic group identity within a widening matrix of Americanization. He charts the contributions of Jews from the Revolutionary War to the California Gold Rush of 1849 to labor activism and Tin Pan Alley. He also profiles scores of influential Jews ranging from Samuel Gompers to Alfred Heinz (Henry) Kissinger. Sachar ( A History of Israel ) includes particularly incisive sections on American Jews' heated divisions over Zionism, the efforts to rescue Europe's Jews from Nazism, black-Jewish relations and the Jews' impact on American culture. This absorbing narrative unfolds a splendid epic of immigration, acceptance, acculturation and reaffirmed identity in the face of institutionalized discrimination. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Author of The Course of Modern Jewish History (Vintage, 1990), A History of Israel ( LJ 5/1/87), and Diaspora ( LJ 3/15/85. o.p.), Sachar specializes in writing grand one-volume historical syntheses, encyclopedic in scope and arresting in detail. Here he provides a sweeping narrative history of American Jews from their beginnings to contemporary times, the most comprehensive single volume as yet written on the subject. Reflecting intimate familiarity with voluminous secondary sources and punctuated by telling primary citations, this book is a veritable treasure trove of information. Despite a wooden first hundred pages and an imperious disdain for Orthodox Judaism, it provides a lively, engaging, and thoughtful depiction of East European/German-Jewish tensions, evolving American Jewish secular culture, and American Jewish politics. A signal achievement, furnishing a valuable apercu for scholars and an abundance of historical insights for lay readers. BOMC alternate.
-Benny Kraut, Univ. of Cincinnati
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1072 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (November 2, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679745300
• ISBN-13: 978-0679745303
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 2.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,069,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A reliable guide and reference, October 17, 2009

By 

Andrew D. Oram (Arlington, Mass., USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of the Jews in America (Paperback)

I found this book an excellent foundation for understanding the many
faces of American Judaism. I had the opportunity to read the whole
book cover to cover while recovering from an accident, and found that
it fleshed out facets of the Jewish experience I had heard about
elsewhere. Some of my perceptions of history were challenged, all were
deepened. And I still use it as a reference.