The girls : Jewish women of Brownsville, Brooklyn, 1940-1995 / Carole Bell Ford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ford, Carole Bell, 1934-

Series:

SUNY series on modern Jewish literature and culture

SUNY series in modern Jewish literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish women--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Jewish women.

Jewish women--New York (State)--New York--Interviews.

Jews--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Jews.

Jews--New York (State)--New York--Interviews.

History.

Brownsville (New York, N.Y.)--Biography.

Brownsville (New York, N.Y.).

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

Interviews.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 217 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2000.

Summary:

This book tells the stories of the Jewish women who came of age in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the 1940s and 1950s. Through in-depth interviews with more than forty women, Carole Bell Ford explores the choices these women made and the boundaries within which they made them, offering fresh insights into the culture and values of Jewish women in the postwar period. Not content to remain in the past, The Girls is also a story of women who live in the present, who lead fulfilling lives even as they struggle to adjust to changes in American society that conflict with their own values and that have profoundly affected the lives of their children and grandchildren.

Contents:

Preface: Reclaiming our Past ix

Prologue They Still Call Themselves "The Girls": Profiles of Two Brownsville Women 1

Chapter 1 Missing: Fifty-One Percent of the Stories 11

Chapter 2 Brownsville: The Nurturing Neighborhood 27

Chapter 3 Jewish Women: Mothers 47

Chapter 4 Coming of Age in the Forties: Choices 63

Chapter 5 The Cult of Domesticity: Coming of Age in the Fifties 81

Chapter 6 Unfinished Business: Becoming Your Own Person 103

Chapter 7 Conclusions: Looking Back 131

Epilogue Daughters: New Dilemmas 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0791443639

0791443647

OCLC:

40943418