The Ghetto - Softcover

Louis Wirth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226902501 ISBN 13: 9780226902500

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1928

Synopsis

The Ghetto traces back to the medieval era the Jewish immigrant colonies that have virtually disappeared from our modern cities--to be replaced by other ghettoes. Analytical as well as historical, Wirth's book lays bare the rich inner life hidden behind the drab exterior of the ghetto. The book describes the significant physical, social, and psychic influences of ghetto life upon the Jews. Wirth demonstrates that the economic life of the modern Jew still reflects the impress of the social isolation of ghetto life; at first self-imposed, later formalized, and finally imposed by others through a variety of extralegal mechanisms.

About this title

About the Author

Louis Wirth (1897–1952) was both educated at the University of Chicago and, after a brief period at Tulane University, became a member of its Sociology Department for the remainder of his life. His work "Urbanism as a Way of Life" served as a paradigm in the intellectual history of the profession.

Hasia Diner is  the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History; Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, History; and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York University

Review

"Not only does Louis Wirth's classic The Ghetto still make for fascinating reading, but Hasia Diner's insightful introduction to this new edition superbly contextualizes the book in the complex life of the man and in the historical moment in academic sociology and American Jewish life during which he wrote it."

—Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard University

"Few who have studied American Judaism, or for that matter almost any field of Jewish history, are totally unfamiliar with Louis Wirth's The Ghetto, a classic of both sociology and community history. . . . It would seem to me that his study of a Chicago Jewish neighborhood withstands the test of time and is an important contribution to all those involved in local settlement patterns, urban and neighborhood history, and community building in America." 

—Seth Ward, University of Denver

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1928
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226902501
• ISBN 13: 9780226902500
• Binding: Paperback