THE JEWISH AMERICAN FAMILY ALBUM

by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler Hoobler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1995

An attractive and extremely useful entry by the Hooblers (The Chinese American Family Album, 1994, etc.) in the American Family Album series, this documentary history covers the mid-17th century to the present. The authors combine short essays with over 130 brief excerpts from letters, diaries, memoirs, and interviews, accompanied by more than 175 black-and-white photographs (most quite small, some blurry with age). Arranged topically (e.g., ""Leaving Home,"" ""New Arrivals,"" ""Pioneers in the West,"" etc.) rather than strictly chronologically, the volume's many voices tell of the persecutions that motivated waves of immigration, the hardships of the journey, and the struggles and successes of life in America. This is for a somewhat younger audience than Milton Meltzer's The Jewish Americans: A History in Their Own Words (1982), with Holocaust testimonies that are not as harrowing as those he cites; Meltzer's provides longer quotations from fewer sources (including about a dozen of those found here) and lacks illustration.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Oxford Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995

Categories: CHILDREN'S