Has America been a place that has preserved and protected Jewish life? Is it a place in which a Jewish future is ensured? Samuel Heilman; long-time observer of American Jewish life; grapples with these questions from a sociologist’s perspective. He argues that the same conditions that have allowed Jews to live in relative security since the 1950s have also presented them with a greater challenge than did the adversity and upheaval of earlier years.The second half of the twentieth century has been a time when American Jews have experienced a minimum of prejudice and almost all domains of life have been accessible to them; but it has also been a time of assimilation; of swelling rates of intermarriage; and of large numbers ignoring their Jewishness completely. Jews have no trouble building synagogues; but they have all sorts of trouble filling them. The quality of Jewish education is perhaps higher than ever before; and the output of Jewish scholarship is overwhelming in its scope and quality; but most American Jews receive a minimum of religious education and can neither read nor comprehend the great corpus of Jewish literature in its Hebrew (or Aramaic) original. This is a time in America when there is no shame in being a Jew; and yet fewer American Jews seem to know what being a Jew means.How did this come to be? What does it portend for the Jewish future? This book endeavors to answer these questions by examining data gleaned from numerous sociological surveys. Heilman first discusses the decade of the fifties and the American Jewish quest for normalcy and mobility. He then details the polarization of American Jewry into active and passive elements in the sixties and seventies. Finally he looks at the eighties and nineties and the issues of Jewish survival and identity and the question of a Jewish future in America. He also considers generational variation; residential and marital patterns; institutional development (especially with regard to Jewish education); and Jewish political power and influence.This book is part of a stocktaking that has been occurring among Jews as the century in which their residence in America was firmly established comes to an end. Grounded in empirical detail; it provides a concise yet analytic evaluation of the meaning of the many studies and surveys of the last four and a half decades. Taking a long view of American Jewry; it is one of very few books that build on specific sociological data but get beyond its detail. All those who want to know what it means and has meant to be an American Jew will find this volume of interest.
#2645999 in Books 2012-09-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .63 x 5.50l; .80 #File Name: 0292739613152 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Not just for stamp collectors.By diane s ryan"The Great Texas Stamp Collection" is a small gem filled with facts and fables that draw the reader into the philatelist's world of rare stamps while offering fascinating factoids about Texas history. Author Deaton has documented the efforts of a number of small town postmasters to keep communications moving for their customers during a time when Union postage stamps were no longer available and the Confederate system was in its infancy. These creative postal employees designed; printed; and sold their own postage stamps; which are highly prized today.Deaton's precise retelling of the life of each "tiny bit of paper" makes his slim volume a must read for both amateur collectors and professional dealers. For the non-collector; the intertwined history of these unique stamps and that of Texas (as well as the greater United States) offers another view of life during the Civil War. Deaton includes enough real characters to populate a Wild West novel; and entices the reader to look beyond what some may consider a solitary hobby.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Interesting but question accuracy.By airflowcuRatings elsewhere don't give it an accurate report. I sent this to a stamp friend; thinking he would like it but his reply was negative. So much for trying to please people.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A must for stamp collectors - A fascinating introduction to Texas postal history during the Civil War for the rest of us.By James P. BevillThe Great Texas Stamp CollectionCharles W. Deaton; University of Texas Press; Austin; 2012.Weaving an intricate tale of the obscure into the broader picture of mainstream of Texas history; author Charles W. Deaton brings a handful of colorful characters to life in their somewhat obsessive and sometimes accidental acquisitions of rare civil war stamps.The opening chapter paints an intimate picture of an intriguing problem which was faced by Texans during the early years of the civil war. Even though the Confederate Postal System took over all operations for mail delivery in the seceded states in June of 1861;a chronic shortage of postage stamps soon developed in Texas; as it did in much of the South. Because long distance communication between merchants; families and soldiers was done almost entirely by letter; the inability of the Confederacy to supply postage in adequate quantities in these early days of the war created a huge disruption in the lives of many who had taken the easy availability of stamps for granted before the war.This story begins with an interesting biographical tour of obscure local postmasters in Texas who tackled the stamp shortage in their respective communities by creating and selling their own local postage as way to move the logjam of accumulated mail. Deaton has lavishly illustrated these extremely rare creations from postmasters in Beaumont; Goliad; Helena; Halletsville; Port Lavaca; Goliad; Gonzales; Independence; Austin and Victoria. He artfully describes each of these rare local stamps in intricate detail. These stamps were obviously emergency issues during the war; and philatelists (stamp collectors) will undoubtedly be huge fans of this book; as it unlocks the mystery behind these great rarities. But the reader can only assume that this postal shortage was soon remedied by the Confederacy with a supply of federal stamps being delivered to local postmasters; but there is no discussion of this - which is a missing element in the book that would have caused the postmasters to cease production of the local issues and thus create their rarity.One of the strengths of the book is the way Deaton doggedly tracks each of these stamps from their first appearance in various auctions and the subsequent media hype in the philatelic publications; though the hands of great collectors and thence dispersed through other auctions sometimes decades later into the hands of yet another generation of collectors. These biographical sketches of deep pocketed collectors is filled with personal anecdotes; sometimes interesting and sometimes not. This tends to give the book a rather jagged; or disjointed flow at times and becomes somewhat of a distraction when trying to follow the story. Fortunately; it is a story about people much more than it is about stamps; and were it not for this diverse group of private collectors and their obsession with their hobby; only a fraction of these issues would have survived for study by historians like Deaton.There is also some good discussion of pricing; authentication; counterfeits; and errors on this small group of stamps; now known as "Texas locals". Also included is a census of all known Texas locals known to survive as organized by the city of issue. Undoubtedly this book will be of the greatest interest to the collecting community; but it is also a story which brings this small corner of Texas history out into the mainstream.An interesting observation by Deaton is that several more of these Texas locals may still be residing in public hands; sitting in file drawers among family papers or in civil war letters that may lie in university libraries. Although civil war era letters are often meticulously catalogued in research institutions; how much attention has been given to the stamp on the envelope? This book; although of a specialized nature; has opened up the closet on the subject and just might make a philatelist out of all of us.By James P. Bevill; author of The Paper Republic; The Struggle for Money; Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas.
