Bridging Three Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish Americans, 1848-1914 (Hardcover)

by Robert Perlman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Between 1848 and 1914, approximately 100,000 Jews emigrated from Hungary to the United States. They came in two waves. The first group, catalyzed by the 1848 revolutions against the Austrian monarchy, consisted mainly of political dissidents and well-educated, cosmopolitan, middle-class Jews seeking greater personal, religious, and political freedoms in the New World. The second and much larger group, which began to arrive around 1880, consisted primarily of poor peasants and unskilled labourers, beckoned to America by the promise of vast economic opportunity. In the abundant literature on Jewish immigration to the United States, virtually nothing has been written specifically about the Hungarian-Jewish experience, which differed in many respects from that of other Jewish national groups. "Bridging Three Worlds" offers such a chronicle, relating the immigrants' history from their political and cultural roots in the Old Country to their acculturation as citizens in a newly adopted land. Based on primary archival material, oral histories, and secondary sources, the book is also informed by the author's own experiences as an American of Hungarian-Jewish origins.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (August 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870234684
• ISBN-13: 978-0870234682
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,494,323 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful book, lots of information not available elsewhere, December 24, 2008

By	Donald L. Kass "Voice from the past" (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you have any Hungarian blood, you should definitely read this book.
It explains a lot of things about Hungarian Jews that I never understood
before. There are many insights into Austro-Hungarian and American history --that Pennsylvania coal mines and midwestern foundries went to
Austria Hungary in the 1880s looking for workers. There was a failure
of the potato crop in eastern europe in 1880 that resulted in many people
emigrating to the Americas. Why Hungarian Jews considered themselves
Hungarians first and Jews second. It is good background material
to the movie Sunshine.