
Insecure Prosperity
Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890-1940
Ewa Morawska(Author)
Princeton University Press
Will be published approx. on 16. May 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
440 pages
978-0-691-00537-9 (ISBN)
Description
This captivating story of the Jewish community in Johnstown, Pennsylvania reveals a pattern of adaptation to American life surprisingly different from that followed by Jewish immigrants to metropolitan areas. Although four-fifths of Jewish immigrants did settle in major cities, another fifth created small-town communities like the one described here by Ewa Morawska. Rather than climbing up the mainstream education and occupational success ladder, the Jewish Johnstowners created in the local economy a tightly knit ethnic entrepreneurial niche and pursued within it their main life goals: achieving a satisfactory standard of living against the recurrent slumps in local mills and coal mines and enjoying the company of their fellow congregants. Rather than secularizing and diversifying their communal life, as did Jewish immigrants to larger cities, they devoted their energies to creating and maintaining an inclusive, multipurpose religious congregation. Morawska begins with an extensive examination of Jewish life in the Eastern European regions from which most of Johnstown's immigrants came, tracing features of culture and social relations that they brought with them to America.
After detailing the process by which migration from Eastern Europe occurred, Morawska takes up the social organization of Johnstown, the place of Jews in that social order, the transformation of Jewish social life in the city, and relations between Jews and non-Jews. The resulting work will appeal simultaneously to students of American history, of American social life, of immigration, and of Jewish experience, as well as to the general reader interested in any of these topics.
After detailing the process by which migration from Eastern Europe occurred, Morawska takes up the social organization of Johnstown, the place of Jews in that social order, the transformation of Jewish social life in the city, and relations between Jews and non-Jews. The resulting work will appeal simultaneously to students of American history, of American social life, of immigration, and of Jewish experience, as well as to the general reader interested in any of these topics.
Reviews / Votes
Winner of the 1997 Anthony Leeds Prize, Society for Urban Anthropology Winner of the 1997 Saul Viener Prize in American Jewish History Winner of the 1997 Theodore Saluotos Book Award, Immigration History Society Honorable Mention for the 1997 Thomas and Znaniecki Award of the Immigration Section of the American Sociological Association One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1996 "It will be difficult for anyone to assert that the Jewish experience in smaller United States communities is just New York in miniature after reading Ewa Morawska's masterly study... A magnificent addition to the literature of American Jewish History."--Hyman Berman, Journal of American History "Nicely supplements studies of the urban American Jewish experience... [One] comes away from this book impressed by its depth of research and by its socio-historical scope."--The Jerusalem Post "Ewa Morawska has written a gem of a book ... [an] opalescent mother of pearl with its many nuances... A new standard for historical and sociological studies of immigrants, small city societies, middle-class culture, and American Jews."--Deborah Dash Moore, Journal of Social HistoryMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
31 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
641 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-00537-9 (9780691005379)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2022
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€61.49
Available for download
Person
Ewa Morawska is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of a study of Johnstown Slavic immigrants, For Bread with Butter.
Content
List of IllustrationsList of TablesPreface: What this Book is About, What is Different About It, and Who Helped in its MakingCh. 1In the Shtetls and Out3Ch. 2Fitting Old-Country Resources into a New Place: The Formation of a (Multi)-Ethnic Economic Niche31Ch. 3Insecure Prosperity72Ch. 4Small Town, Slow Pace: Transformations in Jewish Sociocultural Life133Ch. 5In the Middle on the Periphery: Involvement in the Local Society186Ch. 6Through Several Lenses: Making Sense of Their Lives214Epilogue: Postwar Era: A Decline of the Community245Appendix I: (Self)Reflections of a Fieldworker255Appendix II: Members of the Jewish Community in Johnstown and Vicinity Who Participated in This Study286Notes287Index361