Read Jews in America New Edition A Cartoon History David Gantz Books

Product details Paperback 168 pages Publisher The Jewish Publication Society; Updated and Expanded edition (May 1, 2006) Language English ISBN-10 0827608284

Jews in America New Edition A Cartoon History David Gantz Books Reviews

• very good book ,seller was quick at getting me the book
• There's a fair amount of information here, some accurate, some not so much and some that might be better called opinion. A book this size cant be encyclopedic but lots of material is covered. Unfortunately sometimes you get interested in an story, you turn the page and its on to something different. At the end I felt like I'd read a bunch of articles or a collection of one shots done for some other publication over time since there really isnt much of a narrative thread throughout.
  
  The pages are not "cartoon" in the sense of the four panel comic strip or 6 panel page of comics & graphic novels, this is more an illustrated page with lots of accompanying text. The artwork is a bit loose, unique and mostly engaging but dont expect alot of accuracy where you already know what a person covered here looks like. The celebrity Jews throughout the book will likely be unrecognizable to younger readers. I'm old enough to have heard of some of them but others I had to go look up on Wikipedia.
  
  Two issues I had with the author's editorial viewpoints
  1 The author briefly touches on Japan's involvement in WWII by a caricature of Hirohito that looks like something right out of a wartime propaganda piece. Unfortunately the author fails to mention that Imperial Japan refused to engage in Hitler's plans for the Jews and actually provided transit visas for 10s of thousands of Jews out of Europe as well as temporary residence for a Yeshiva, thus saving it from destruction. Slight irony that the author uses only racist imagery which has so often been used against the Jews.
  
  2 In the updated appendix, the Internet is portrayed basically as a haven for Neo Nazi goons to stir up hatred with only a minor nod given to the idea of the first amendment. Since there are so many good Judaica learning resources on the web, this seems a real shame.
  
  All that aside, this isnt a bad book but I cant honestly give it more than 3 stars.
• A few bits of the book seem to be an opinion by the author rather than a fact. The bit about women being rightful to work among men seems to be an opinion. I guess boxer Max Baer Sr. (Jethro's father) was Jewish as this book reports though I heard Max Baer Jr. say on a talk show that he (Baer Jr.) is Catholic. Also, I debate that the Jews lost Nixon the 1960 presidential election. I thought the Italian-American Mafia did. Well, book is at least around 85% accurate.