Reviews for Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America

The average rating for Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-04 00:00:00 Noel Carden Really loved this book, but the material is quite academic and the topic is rather niche.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-20 00:00:00 Lorraine Corvino This book fits so squarely within my intellectual interests it's silly. Like I've mentioned before, I think I'm a bit more demanding on academic books. I'm really looking for a solid, cohesive argument, and "Torns at the Roots" didn't 100% get there. BUT: It was engagingly written for an academic book (the worst I could say is that the word "ambivalent" appeared here about 40 too many times) and Staub covers all sorts of different, interesting topics in a logical way. You can clearly see how arguments over civil rights moved into ones over Vietnam moved into ones over women's lib, etc etc. It's an intellectual history, so this is basically a summary of back-and-forth arguments. He said/she said stuff. But, to me at least, it was fascinating, and I really appreciated all the nuance re: what Jewishness means. That nuance is definitely something I'm hungry for in my personal life, so I really enjoyed the read overall.