The rag race
Subtitle: how Jews sewed their way to success in America and the British Empire
By: Adam D. Mendelsohn
Series: The Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish History; Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish history
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 297
ISBN-13: 9781479847181
Subjects: Clothing trade; History; Economic conditions; Jews; Success in business
Description: The majority of Jewish immigrants who made their way to the United States between 1820 and 1924 arrived nearly penniless; yet today their descendants stand out as exceptionally successful. How can we explain their dramatic economic ascent? Have Jews been successful because of cultural factors distinct to them as a group, or because of the particular circumstances that they encountered in America? This book argues that the Jews who flocked to the United States during the age of mass migration were aided appreciably by their association with a particular corner of the American economy: the rag trade. From humble beginnings, Jews rode the coattails of the clothing trade from the margins of economic life to a position of unusual promise and prominence, shaping both their societal status and the clothing industry as a whole. Comparing the history of Jewish participation within the clothing trade in the United States with that of Jews in the same business in England, this book demonstrates that differences within the garment industry on either side of the Atlantic contributed to a very real divergence in social and economic outcomes for Jews in each setting.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-286) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Goblin market: London, 1843; title: 2. New York city: a rag-fair sort of place; title: 3. Rumpled foot soldiers of the market revolution; title: 4. Clothing Moses; title: 5. The Empire's new clothes; title: 6. A new dawn in the West; title: 7. Clothing the blue and gray; title: 8. A ready-made paradise.