Description
Book SynopsisIn this richly revealing biography of a major, but little-known, American businessman and philanthropist, Peter M. Ascoli brings to life a portrait of Julius Rosenwald, the man and his work. The son of first-generation German Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald, known to his friends as JR, apprenticed for his uncles, who were major clothing manufacturers in New York City. It would be as a men's clothing salesperson that JR would make his fateful encounter with Sears, Roebuck and Company, which he eventually fashioned into the greatest mail order firm in the world. He also founded Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. And in the American South Rosenwald helped support the building of the more than 5,300 schools that bore his name. Yet the charitable fund he created during World War I went out of existence in 1948 at his expressed wish. Ascoli provides a fascinating account of Rosenwald's meteoric rise in American business, but he also portrays a man devoted to family and with a desi
Trade ReviewIn this richly revealing biography of a major, but little-known, American busienssman and philanthropist, Peter Ascoli brings to life a portrait of Julius Rosenwald, the man and his work.
* McCormick Messenger *
This book is a great start in giving Rosenwald the attention he deserves.
* Library Journal *
Ascoli's work will stand as the definitive biography of Juiius Rosenwald for a long time to come.
-- David Blanke * An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies *
As Ascoli shows in this . . . thorough biography, Rosenwald was a compelling figure, a mensch who followed his principles, mixing good business with good social justice.
* The Forward *
In Julius Rosenwald . . . his grandson Peter Max Ascoli has done well in searching out the scattered sources that previous biographers have neglected. In particular, we now have a much clearer understanding of Rosenwald's relations with contemporary social reformers like Jane Addams.
* Chronicle Review *
It is no wonder . . . that when Rosenwald died in 1932, W. E. B. DuBois declared, 'He was a great man. But he was no mere philanthropist. He was, rather, the subtle stinging critic of our racial democracy.'. . . Set against the virtual absence of black education in the rural South beforehand, his [Rosenwald's] schools qualified as revolutionary. . . . Rosenwald established a standard of enlightenment, impact and common sense.
* Moment *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
1. Youth and First Business Ventures, 1862–1895
2. Early Sears Years, 1895–1908
3. Blacks, Politics, and Philanthropy, 1908–1912
4. Black Schools, Political Attacks, and the Profit Sharing Plan, 1912–1916
5. World War I, 1916–1918
6. The Rescue of Sears and the Consolidation of Philanthropic Endeavors, 1919–1924
7. New Philanthropic Ventures, 1924–1928
8. The Julius Rosenwald Fund, Hoover, and the Depression, 1928–1930
9. Final Year and Postmortem, 1931–1949
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
