Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America
by Ruth Gay
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Description
Nearly three million Jews came to America from Eastern Europe between 1880 and the outbreak of World War I, filled with the hope of life in a new land. Within two generations, these newcomers settled and prospered in the densely populated Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods of New York City. Against this backdrop, Ruth Gay narrates their rarely told story--a unique and vibrant portrait of a people in their daily trials and rituals--bringing alive the vitality of the streets, markets, schools, show more synagogues, and tenement halls where a new version of America was invented in the 1920s and 1930s. An intimate, unforgettable account, Unfinished People is a singular act of expressing in words the richly textured lives of a resilient people. "A touching and funny evocation...marvelous in its detail.... This is history as day-to-day living--irrevocable and unforgotten."--Alfred Kazin. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award, a seminal work of history on immigrant Jewish life in early twentieth-century New York. show lessTags
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Author Information
8+ Works 206 Members
Ruth Gay has written extensively on Jewish history.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Religion & Spirituality, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 305.892 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social group - Age, Gender, Ethnicity Ethnic and national groups Other ethnic and national groups Semites
- LCC
- F128.9 .J5 .G39 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history New York
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 85
- Popularity
- 374,568
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 10
