Brian Dolber comprehensively explores the cultural and media-related developments of an important American social movement during its most transformative time: the varying business enterprises, community associations, party structures, and social institutions that collectively constituted ‘US Jewish labor’ in the decades between WWI and II. Dolber infuses his historical analysis with a nuance and urgency that ensures his readers will neither complacently shrug off the interwar era as limited in its relevance to our contemporary conjuncture nor nostalgically long for a supposedly romantic period of leftist political organizing in the US Indeed, a tacit takeaway drawn from Dolber’s book is that activists today (especially those experimenting with alternative media and cultural formations) can benefit greatly from both the inspiring examples of past precedence and a sober acceptance of the potential pitfalls that can threaten their efforts.
Articles by David Reznik
David L. Reznik is Associate Professor of Sociology and advisor for the Cultural Studies minor at Bridgewater College. His book, New Jews?: Race and American Jewish Identity in 21st-Century Film, is available in paperback. He has also written on the everyday challenges and utopian dreams of contemporary independent filmmakers. Currently, he is working on a narrative podcast series about the ethnic identity politics of an infamous 2006 murder trial in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.