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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Out of the Shadow book review
Great book, I loved it. Was happy with the seller and the quick delivery. Thank You allot!

A hand-to-mouth existence
Rose Cohen's autobiography is the story of the illegal emigration of an illiterate Jewish Russian family to New York in the 1890s. The family doesn't arrive in the land of `milk and honey' but in a brutal world of `hunger and exploitation'.
The father and his child daughter have to work in sweatshops for survival wages: `Fourteen hours a day you sit on a chair, often without a back, close to the other feller hand feeling the heat of her body. Fourteen hours with your back bent. Your eyes close to your work you sit stitching often by gaslight. In the winter your body is numb with cold. In the summer, no sun. The black cloth dust eats into your very pores.'
When the two come home, they live with the whole family of seven in two rooms, where the sun never comes in.
On top of that, there is the daily anxiety for loosing one's job. This became a reality in the massive and extreme depression of the `memorable years' of 1893-1894. People survived on a loaf of bread per day and could barely (or not) pay the rent with their savings.
As a reaction, labor became organized (`Each of you can do nothing.')
When there is a sparkle of hope and love (marriage), religion becomes an insurmountable barrier. There is fanaticism on both sides and the `others' speak `wild talk'

This moving and sometimes very emotional autobiography is a tale of pure survival in a world without pity and solidarity. It reminds us from where we all come from.
Highly recommended.

A Touching Story of Immigrant Experience
I am submitting a note from one of my buyers, which somehow ended up on my seller feedback page but should be included here:This is a beautifully written bittersweet story of immigrant experience from around 1890s to 1910. The writer tells of her painful but hopeful emergence from traditional and restrictive family life to wider experience. There is deep pathos in this story.

Out of the Shadow
Out of the Shadow, by Rose Cohen, is a book about a pious Russian Jewish family that immigrated to America, after leaving Russia, due to strict unbearable laws that were past by the Czar.The father left Russia in pursuit of a better life in America for his family.As he earned somewhat of a living in America, he sends for his eldest daughter, and his sister, to come and help him make more money so that the family doesn't have to stay in Russia for mush longer. As the twelve-year old Rahel, twenty-one year old Masha and tired father work in America, they soon makes enough money to send traveling tickets to Russia for the rest of the family to come to America.They struggle in America to be happy, accepted, healthy, prosperous and become "Americans." Many drastic changes take place in their first years, and continue throughout the book. The family becomes less pious, but don't forget the Jewish religion completely.Losing their piety was a way of fitting in America.They tried to understand the life in America, and saw that it is very different than their lives in Russia.The family of seven (5 kids and the parents) was not really a family anymore because every family member had their own responsibilities.The kids worked so hard and barely spent any time at home, and begged by their mother not to work on the Sabbath.Rahel and her sister worked in sweatshops, and most of the money they earned was not for them, but for the family, and that was the most important thing. With this money they would buy food, and clothing. The mother came with her children to America to live a better life than they had lived in Russia and expected a lot more money, food, clothing, and happiness in America.Instead they survive with barley any food, money and happiness.I feel that all these changes are very hard to live with, or rather get used to because the family had a different view of life in America and are being let down by their expectations.These changes are rather sad, and discouraging, in my opinion because as I had read this book, I really felt their sorrow, and pain.They also had some happy moments, for example when the whole family was finally together (in America), but those happy moments are rare as the reader reads on in the book. The living style that the family had in America was one very different from Russia because in Russia, their home was with more warmth and even though the father went away to America, the house still felt nice and warm.The family itself had each other and everyone took care of everyone.The grandparents were living with the whole family, and the grandma especially had a very warm personality, I noticed as she talked to her grand-children etc.The mother seemed a lot happier too because she seemed like the family is all that she has and she must keep the house alive and happy for everyone, although she too at times was sad. Russia was undergoing many difficulties, and the Czar made the living standards impossible for some people, including the Jews. The mother and if I may add, the father as well, had many other things on their minds, which would cause for some tears of their own.Even though the log house in Russia, in my opinion seemed warmer (affectionately), it was hard for the family to keep a "warm" and comfortable living environment in America. The family didn't even live in a "better" area! They lived in the ghetto, full of poverty! They wanted a better life, and lived in misery in America!The family was always hungry because they couldn't make enough money to buy enough food and there was so much crying!Not knowing how to read and write was also very hard for the parents, and the kids as well.For immigrants lacking education was not good, and it kept them from getting better jobs in America.America was very different than Russia and since the people were different and the living style was different the family had to fit in by looking like Americans! This was also very hard for Jew's for they were not liked among the other people in their neighborhood.The father had to cut off his beard and his ear locks to look American so that nothing would happen to him as he walked in the streets. The mother was persuaded to take off her head covering so that she wouldn't look old fashioned, and this was a sin.Rahel reminds her mother that the father trims his beard and she answers to Rahel, "Is that why...I too must sin" (Cohen p.154)? In my opinion, they should've just stayed in Russia, and kept their Jewish faith because America is changing them in a bad way. I say this because I feel very strongly about the Jewish faith, that it is very important, and no one/nothing can ever take it away from me, or change who I am. The parents became very dependent on the children in the family for they worked most of the time and they too were the ones that brought home the money.The children would work just as hard as the adults did, but earn less money and were treated differently because of their young ages.When Rahel was a servant, she felt inferior to those who lived better than she did.Children (adults too) were the ones that would keep the family alive, I would say, but also lived the worst lives because they had such back-breaking jobs at the sweatshops etc. "Fourteen hours a day you sit on a chair, often without a back, felling coats. Fourteen hours you sit close to the other feller hand feeling the heat of her body against yours, her breathe on your face.Fourteen hours with your back bent, your eyes close to your work you sit stitching in a dull room often gas light.In the winter during all these hours as you sit stitching your body is numb and cold.In the summer, as far as you are concerned, there might be no sun, no green grass, no soft breezes" (Cohen p. 125).Rahel's family lived during a horrible time and being immigrants was the worst.They became less pious, had extremely difficult jobs and were unhappy most of the time. I really enjoyed reading this book because I felt that as a Jew, I can really relate to this story, aside from the fact it took place during the 1800's.This historical period was very hard, and as I read this book, a tear or two fell.The story was a success at the end, I feel, when the eldest of the two sons was on his way to Cornell University, but aside from that, the family did have an extremely difficult time in America. In my opinion they failed to live a better life, than they had anticipated they would live when they were still in Russia.Out Of the Shadow was definitely, one of the best books that I have read. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Henry Adams Skewers a Virginia Eccentric
John Randolph was a Jeffersonian Republican and a Virginian to the manor born. He was a virulent political opponent of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The author of this biography was Henry Adams, great-grandson and grandson of the two Massachusetts presidents. The Adamses and the Randolphs could hardly have been more dissimilar in politics, religion, and every other important influence upon one's outlook on life. In sum, Henry Adams is not an unbiased biographer of John Randolph. Henry Adams skewers this Virginia eccentric and Randolph made it easy.

[ADDENDUM: I need to revise my estimation of Henry Adams's potential bias. See the Garry Wills book (link below) for a discussion of Henry Adams attitude toward his presidential ancestors and John Randolph, pages 105-116. Henry did NOT share political views with either John and John Quincy. He also especially personally did not like or admire John Qunicy.]

Do these differences and biases make Henry Adams an unreliable biographer of John Randolph? I do not really know because frankly John Randolph is such a minor character in American history that books about him are obscure in the extreme. Adams was a respected writer and historian, but that does not bar him from bias. (See, e.g. History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (Library of America)) From what I have gathered elsewhere, Randolph was an impulsive, outrageously outspoken, heavy-drinking man who may not have been entirely sane.

But really, who cares if Adams is entirely objective or not? I became interested in John Randolph because he keeps popping up in early 19th century American history. He was briefly an important Republican Congressional leader, but if his name is remembered at all, it really remembered because of his eccentricities of drink, manner, politics, and language.

When I learned that the great Henry Adams had penned a biography, the lure was irresistible. John Randolph was rara avis - an odd duck. The fact that Adams had a viewpoint, OK, an axe or two to grind, only makes the book more delicious. Henry Adams could write and his writing is anchored in historical fact. He also gives the reader the flavor and feel of times whether he is entirely fair to Randolph or not. Better than most historians of this era, Adams succinctly lays out the fears of despotism that motivated the early Jeffersonians. He also sees his great-grandfather John's use of the Alien and Sedition laws as putting the republic in `real danger'.

I found John Randolph considerably easier sledding than his far better know The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version. For more on Adams see Garry Wills'Henry Adams and the Making of America. His John Randolph is a short, but fascinating slice of American history.

Beautifully written chop job
Anyone picking up this book should know from the start that this is as about as unobjective a biography as one is bound to find.Henry Adams has multiple scores to settle, on behalf of John Adams and John Quincy Adams (his great-grandfather and grandfather, respectively), with John Randolph of Roanoke (who never had a kind word for either of the Adams presidents). The reader would be strongly advised to read both the introduction by Robert McColley, as well as the notes on the text (located at the end of the book) which deals with specific matters of interpretation in the book.

Adams uses this book to savage Randolph at every opportunity.The bulk of the book follows Randolph in his congressional career up through 1806, when he broke with the Jefferson administration over the administration's attempt to pay France two million dollars to secure Western Florida from Spain.Up until 1806, as Adams puts it, Randolph was the "spoiled child of his party and recognised mouthpiece of the administration." (p. 118)Randolph was in the thick of things up to that point, including the Louisiana Purchase, the approval of which he helped shephard through the House of Representatives.He was also given the responsibility for the February 1805 impeachment of Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.At that point in history, the question of the Executive Branch's authority over the Judicial Branch was far from settled.A successful prosecution of Justice Chase might well have changed the history of Executive-Judicial relations, but Randolph botched the job thoroughly.Adams can barely contain his glee when describing how unequal to the task Randolph was.

The bungled Chase impeachment increasingly made Randolph an embarrassment to the Jefferson administration.Randolph's political prospects were damaged beyond repair after 1806, and from that point on, as he became increasingly erratic, was on the periphery of the American political scene.He quarrelled, at one point or another, with every administration from Jefferson to Andrew Jackson.Adams devotes only 70 pages to Randolph's life from 1806 until his death in 1833.It is evident at this point that Adams is more interested in directing criticism at Jefferson and his successors in the Virginia Dynasty than he is at studying the life of Randolph.

Adams does make good points in his book, especially regarding the notions of states' rights.Coventional wisdom holds that Randolph was one the early advocates of the states' rights philosophy that John C. Calhoun subsequently embraced, but Adams argues persuasively that actions such as the Louisiana Purchase and the protection by the federal government of slavery (such as the Fugitive Slave Act) were in themselves encroachments on the rights of individual states and helped further the centralization of government in the United States.Far from being a traditional states' rights advocate, Adams contends, Randolph did a great deal to undermine the notion of states' rights as it existed in 1789.

Despite the rather venomous nature of the book, it is none the less a wonderful piece of literature that is worth reading.Adams' skills as a writer are evident throughout.The three stars represents a dual rating:5 stars for the quality of the writing, 1 star for the utter lack of objectivity...although what could the reader seriously expect anyway? ... Read more

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A Raisin in the Sun is the first play by a black woman to be produced in a Broadway theater. First performed in 1959, before the civil rights and women's movements came to the fore, it raises issues of segregation, family strife, and relationships between men and women that are both representative of the time and timeless in their universality. This interdisciplinary collection of commentary and forty-five primary documents will enrich the reader's understanding of the historical and social context of the play. A wide variety of primary materials sheds light on integration and segregation in the 1950s and 1960s; relationships between African Americans and Africans; relationships between men and women within African American culture; Chicago as a literary setting for the play; and contemporary race relations in the 1990s. Documents include first-person accounts, magazine articles and editorials espousing opposing arguments, excerpts from the works of Toni Morrison, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, bell hooks, Malcolm X, and Richard Wright, and a selection of pertinent government documents and eye-opening statistics. Many of the documents are available in no other printed form. Each chapter concludes with study questions and topics for research papers and class discussion, as well as lists of further reading for examining the themes and issues raised by the play. ... Read more

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It is in the belief that the examination of primary sources can be a useful exercise in survey courses in American history that we have prepared An American Harvest. Although it can be used alone in courses organized around "problems' or "issues" and in classes that are blessedly small, we have arranged the reading material in ten sections corresponding to the periods into which American history is usually divided so that An American Harvest may be assigned in conjunction with any of the standard textbooks. Within each section are five or six documents focusing on major questions of public policy. In a foreword to each document we explain its historical context. In an afterword we comment on its subsequent history and significance. -- excepts from book's preface ... Read more

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Bunches of historical documents that figured in America's development from 1689 to 1861. ... Read more

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Bringing together scholarly essays and helpfully annotated primary documents, African Americans and the Haitian Revolution collects not only the best recent scholarship on the subject, but also showcases the primary texts written by African Americans about the Haitian Revolution. Rather than being about the revolution itself, this collection attempts to show how the events in Haiti served to galvanize African Americans to think about themselves and to act in accordance with their beliefs, and contributes to the study of African Americans in the wider Atlantic World.

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This digital document is an article from Dictionary of American History, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 852 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information. ... Read more

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From the simple, two-paragraph Mayflower Compact drawn up by the Pilgrims in 1620 to the stirring Inaugural Address delivered by President Eisenhower in 1953, "By These Words" presents and interprets the vital writing and speeches which have marked more than three centuries of American thought and progress. Each documant is printed in full with an accompanying chapter placing it in the context of the time in which it was written. ... Read more