Postwar stories how books made Judaism American / Rachel Gordan.
| Author/creator | Gordan, Rachel |
| Other author | Oxford University Press. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | [New York] : Oxford University Press, [2024] |
| Description | xi, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Oxford Scholarship Online |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | How books made Judaism American |
| Contents | Popularizing Judaism -- From Race to Religion and the Challenge of Antisemitism -- The Roots of 1940s Anti-antisemitism Fiction -- When Women Made Anti-Antisemitism Fiction Popular -- The Limits of Anti-Antisemitism Literature -- How Basic is Basic Judaism? -- Philip Bernstein and the 1950s Religious Revival -- Life's "Old-Fashioned Jews"-- "Why I Choose to be a Jew" --After the Middlebrow Moment. |
| Abstract | "It seems so obvious today to identify Judaism as a "religion" that it comes as a surprise to learn that it is only since the Second World War that Judaism has been widely considered a "religion" by most non-Jewish Americans. The consensus among American Christians before then was that Judaism was a race. This changed with the war. Into this historical narrative about the dramatic transformations of post-WWII American Judaism, Postwar Stories brings the cultural achievements of two strands of midcentury middlebrow literature: anti-antisemitism novels of the 1940s and Introduction to Judaism literature of the 1940s and 1950s. While middlebrow literature did not cause societal change on its own, the books and magazine articles analyzed in Postwar Stories furnished an arena for articulating and questioning explanations of postwar American Jews and Judaism. For Jewish readers, depictions of Jews in anti-antisemitism and Introduction to Judaism literature were capable of providing reassurance or harm, depending on the associations and emotions they evoked. For young people coming of age in the late 1940s, reading a popular novel about antisemitism that became an Academy Award-winning film, or encountering a Life magazine story about Judaism could make a strong impression on their understanding of the significance of antisemitism and Judaism in American culture. Popular culture matters when studying American attitudes, because books, magazine articles, and films provide an intimacy to otherwise foreign subjects, making them personally meaningful to readers and viewers"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-277) and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2023051106 |
| ISBN | 9780197694336 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 9780197694329 (hardback) |
| ISBN | (epub) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |