Making of an Ethnic Middle Class: Portland Jewry over Four Generations

by William Toll

Overview

The Making of an Ethnic Middle Class explains how European Jews of diverse cultural and social backgrounds coalesced over four generations into a middle-class community. By utilizing numerous oral histories to complement statistical data from public sources such as the federal manuscript censuses and public school enrollment cards, William Toll has succeeded in tracing in minute detail the contours of change. The study focuses particularly on the role of women to demonstrate how dramatic changes in the size and composition of the family and in sex roles, more than changes in the workplace, eroded European traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438422251
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	254
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

William Toll teaches American Jewish history at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Social Process and Ethnic Identity, A Complex Relationship

1. Ethnicity, Mobility, and Class: The Origins of a Jewish Social Structure, 1855-1900

2. Jewish Women and Social Modernization, 1870-1930

3. Civic Activism: The Public and Private Sources of Ethnic Identity

4. The Immigrant District and the New Middle Class, 1900-1930

5. An Entrenched Middle Class and a Politicized Ethnicity, 1930-1045

Conclusion

A Note on Sources and Methods

Notes

Index