Sunday, February 11, 2007

Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars

Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars. I just wrote a horrendous paper on this book, so I'll be brief. It's an unfocused recounting of life in New York's Lower East side for Italian and Eastern European Jewish immigrant women. Bogged down by jargon and random contradictory assertions, above all a DULL and rambling book in the author's voice - it was saved by the voices of the women themselves. Whenever the author quoted from extensive audio interviews (from the CUNY oral history project) the book suddenly became vibrant.

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