The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire

$29.99

by Adam D. Mendelsohn


Format: Paperback


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?


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?


The Rag Race 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, The Rag Race 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.

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SKU: 010170 Category:
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The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire

In stock

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