The Spirit of the Ghetto

by Hutchins Hapgood and Jacob Epstein

Book Overview

First published in 1902, and illustrated by Jacob Epstein, this evocation of the spiritual and cultural life of Yiddish New York remains fresh and relevant, and an invaluable commentary on one aspect of the formation of modern America.

To an extent unequaled by any outsider before him, Hutchins Hapgood, a descendant of generations of New England Yankees, succeeded in penetrating the inner life of an American immigrant community. Hapgood...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674832663
• ISBN13: 9780674832664
• Release Date: January 1967
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 315 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

No Spirit in Hapgood's ghetto

This book came highly recommended as a window into the lives of the Jewish immigrants of the Lower East Side and I was quite eager to read it. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Although Mr. Hapgood was accurate in the portrayal of his subjects, his portraits appeared dry and obviously written by a non-Jewish outsider. His "Spirit of the Ghetto" was actually pretty spiritless and came off as an anthropological study. For a more interesting and realistic picture of these dynamic people, I suggest Irving Howe's "World of Our Fathers" or the fiction of Abraham Cahan. The beautiful drawings of Jacob Epstein, however, compensate for the shortcomings of Hapgood's stilted prose and make this book a worthwhile purchase.