The Rag Race Audiobook By Adam D. Mendelsohn cover art

The Rag Race

How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire

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Winner, 2016 Best First Book Prize from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society Finalist, 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Winner, 2015 Book Prize from the Southern Jewish Historical Society Finalist, 2015 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award from the Association for Jewish Studies Winner, 2014 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies from the Jewish Book Council

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?

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.

©2014 NYU Press (P)2017 NYU Press United States Judaism Americas Europe Labor & Industrial Relations World War II Politics & Government Military Wars & Conflicts
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What did you love best about The Rag Race?

very interesting information, clearly narrated

Who was your favorite character and why?

history of the 'rag race' well described

Have you listened to any of Amanda Terman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

yes; vocab book; this is clearly narrated, and a longer book with historical information

A most interesting book

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The worst narration I have ever heard ..the content had potential but the narrator killed it
What were they thinking?

Horrible narration

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