Why read The Price of Whiteness?

Book cover of The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity

Book description

What has it meant to be Jewish in a nation preoccupied with the categories of black and white? "The Price of Whiteness" documents the uneasy place Jews have held in America's racial culture since the late nineteenth century. This book traces Jews' often tumultuous encounter with race from the 1870's…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Price of Whiteness as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Andrew Ridker

Author

In The Price of Whiteness, historian Eric L. Goldstein documents the uneasy shift in Jewish-American identity throughout American history.

Are Jews a religion or a race or something else entirely? How did Ashkenazi Jews come to be seen as white? Goldstein addresses these questions and others in his rigorously researched book, which touches on topics like Black-Jewish relations, and features a surprisingly profound analysis of Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song.”

From Andrew's list on The best books about Jewish life in America.