Our Parents' Lives

by Neil M. Cowan, Ruth Schwartz Cowan

Oral histories recount the transition from an Eastern European society ruled by Talmudic laws to a less strictly regulated American society

Genres: Nonfiction, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1989

Reviews

[Emilym465 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the totally unbiased NIECE of the authors, and a recipient of this first edition hot off the press, I love this book. The stories and reminiscences are fascinating. What a glimpse into the life our grandparents and their parents lived.

[Sylvia J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on a pile of books to be given away at my synagogue. I’m glad I grabbed it. I thought I knew just about everything about that time in my family‘s history. I learned a lot of new stuff.
The most interesting part was learning how my father was raised without cuddling, fed on a schedule, expected to be unemotional. I had wondered about that. It clarified the approach my intellectual grandparents had towards childrearing.
I also found interesting some of the reasons why we Jews did well when coming here. How being forced to be creative and earning a living in the old country we could use that creativity in the new land in business.
At the same time I was reading this, on my Kindle I was reading Noa Tishby’s Israel, The Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. The two books, read together, were very illuminating. I highly recommend both books.

[Simon Petlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well-researched and well-written, so it was a pleasure to read. It's also a very informative look at a generation of people, now all gone, who were instrumental in building the American Jewish experience of the 2oth century. These are the immigrants and children of recently-arrived immigrants, who were American-Jewish and Jewish-American - the conflicts between the old and new identities are profound, and in some cases, quite painful. The book is useful in stripping away the romantic notions we may have about our grandparents and great grandparents. They were real people, who struggled and often dealt with a lot of adversity. Not everyone in the book comes across as nice, and that's fine. That's okay. Life was tough back then. A very worthwhile read.

[Rachel Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting! I loved the personal interviews throughout this book.

[Elaine]

Facinating source of many folkways!