Description
Book SynopsisDocuments the uneasy place Jews have held in America's racial culture since the late nineteenth century. This book traces Jews' often tumultuous encounter with race from the 1870s through World War II, when they became vested as part of America's white mainstream and abandoned the practice of describing themselves in racial terms.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2008 Sami Rohr Prize for the Jewish Literature Choice Award Finalist for the 2007 Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute Book Award Winner of the 2006 Theodore Saloutos Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society Co-Winner of the 2006 Saul Viener Book Prize, American Jewish Historical Society Finalist for the 2006 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies, Jewish Book Council "In this original, boldly conceptualized and well-researched inquiry into the complicated intersections of 'race' and Jewish-American identity, Goldstein explores how Jewish immigrants gradually began to understand themselves as 'white' (i.e., fully European) when most of America did not."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A palimpsest layering institutional, communal, literary, religious, and visual materials, Goldstein's study moves deftly and amusingly through periods and across cultural domains to show how the Jews came to describe themselves... Goldstein's presentation of a century and a half of Jewish 'negotiation' of whiteness is fascinating chapter by chapter, and deft in communicating the bewildering diversity and reactivity of Jewish relationships to the black community."--Elisa New, New Republic "More than any other historian to date, Goldstein ... shows the changing ways in which Jewish Americans themselves argued either for their own racial particularity, or for their inclusions as whites, or for both."--David Roediger, Chronicle of Higher Education "Essential reading for understanding ethnic/race relations and Jewish identity. Goldstein provides an excellent history of Jewish efforts to place themselves within the American racial hierarchy."--Ronald H. Bayor, Southern Jewish History "Eric Goldstein demonstrates in this intriguing and insightful study [that] it would be much too short-sighted to regard race solely as a problematic concept imposed on American Jews in order to marginalize them."--Tobias Brinkmann, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies "Eric L. Goldstein has written a penetrating and illuminating account of US Jews' entanglement with 'race' from the last third of the 19th century to the present... [T]his is a thought-provoking text that deserves a wide readership."--Choice "This is a field well-trodden in recent years, but Eric L. Goldstein adds both earnest research and close interpretation to the inherently limitless question of Jewish-American 'identity.' "--American Historical Review "Eric L. Goldstein's book should be among the very first stops for those wishing to approach the subject of Jews and race in America... It is broad, well researched, compellingly told, extraordinarily nuanced, and it comes as a kind of savior to an area of scholarship that has suffered from large gaps regarding basic historical fact."--Michael Alexander, American Jewish History "Eric Goldstein, an American historian, has written a fascinating, meticulously documented book that ... shows that American Jews' definition of the Jewish collectivity, for themselves as well as for others, has undergone significant change over the past two centuries, to a large extent reflecting their varying sense of security in American society."--Chaim I. Waxman, Jewish Political Studies Review "Goldstein's The Price of Whiteness is a valuable addition to the study of the American Jewish community in the twentieth century... Even though Jews are likely to remain ambivalent on what is a Jew, Goldstein's book has provided much solid research, thoughtful reflection, and added insight on this question. The book is recommended without hesitation or reservation."--Saul Lerner, Shofar "The Price of Whiteness is technically solid, with insightful writing and organization... The Price of Whiteness is even more relevant than Goldstein is willing to claim. This is a highly readable, well-researched, and equitable examination of one of the most interesting topics in American Jewish history and a book worthy of consideration for course adoption in this field."--Glen Anthony Harris, American Jewish Archives Journal "[An] imaginative, provocative, and well-researched book."--Edward S. Shapiro, Congress Monthly
Table of ContentsLIST OF FIGURES ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: THE JEWISH "RACE" IN AMERICA, 1875-1895 CHAPTER 1: "Different Blood Flows in Our Veins": Race and Jewish Self-Definition in Late-Nineteenth-Century America 11 PART II: JEWS IN BLACK AND WHITE, 1896-1918 CHAPTER 2: The Unstable Other: Locating Jews in Progressive Era American Racial Discourse 35 CHAPTER 3: "Now Is the Time to Show Your True Colors": The Jewish Approach to African Americans 51 CHAPTER 4: "What Are We?":Jewishness between Race and Religion 86 PART III: CONFRONTING JEWISH DIFFERENCE, 1919-1935 CHAPTER 5: Race and the "Jewish Problem" in Interwar America 119 CHAPTER 6: "A White Race of Another Kind"? 138 CHAPTER 7: Wrestling with Racial Jewishness 165 PART IV: FROM OLD CHALLENGES TO NEW, 1936-1950 CHAPTER 8: World War II and the Transformation of Jewish Racial Identity 189 EPILOGUE: Jews, Whiteness, and "Tribalism" in Multicultural America 209 NOTES 241 INDEX 293
