The wonders of America : reinventing Jewish culture 1880-1950 / Jenna Weissman Joselit.

1st ed.

0809027577
9780809027576

New York : Hill and Wang, ©1994.

English

xi, 349 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

E 184 .J5 J837 1994

15.85
NY 4900

306.4/089924073
305.8/924/073

"The selective relish with which most American Jews affirm their identity - consuming kosher delicacies once a year, extravagantly celebrating the bar mitzvahs of their sons and the weddings of their daughters has usually given rise to satire or consternation. The Wonders of America offers an alternative perspective, for this innovative social history of Jewish culture highlights the cultural ingenuity and adaptive genius of American Jewish life - from the end of the nineteenth century through the postwar period."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawing on advertisements and etiquette manuals, sermons and surveys, Jenna Weissman Joselit offers a lively, mordant, and richly illustrated account of how American Jews created their distinctive culture. In vivid, often humorous detail, she describes how they raised their children, decorated their homes, shopped and cooked, celebrated holidays, and marked birth, marriage, and death as they became at home in America. Her fresh, original analysis makes clear that it is not the theoretical debates of rabbis and scholars but the small choices of daily life that shape and sustain a culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-337) and index.

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