Book Notes

154 BOOK NOTES Reference works in all fields are listed under "Reference." American Jewish Life SHOFAR American Pluralism and the Jewish Community, edited by Seymour M.Lipset. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990. 281 pp. $32.95. ISBN 0-88738-286-X. In this volume of essays, Lipset has brought together many social analysts of Jewish life in order to focus on the incorporation of Jews in all arenas and aspects of American life, and the effects of such incorporation on the structuring of Jewish life and self-perception. America's Nazis: A Democratic Dilemma, by Susan Canedy. Menlo Park, CA: Markgraf Publications Group, 1990. 254 pp. $28.95 (c); $18.95 (p). ISBN 0944109 -07-1 (c); 0-944109-06-3 (p). This illustrated history of the German American Bund of the 1930s and 405 uses the development of the Nazi Bund to highlight the problems inherent in cultural isolation within a society, leading to political fringe groups which may threaten a functioning democracy. Canedy traces the isolation and concomitant prejudice which result when an ethnic minority 's process of assimilation is interrupted by war, national fervor, and political upheaval. Her work also demonstrates the problems which democratic government encounters in attempting to contain and manage what is perceived as a threat to national security. The Emergence ofJewish Scholarship in America: The Publication ofThe Jewish Encyclopedia, by Shuly Rubin Schwartz. Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 1991. 225 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-87820-412-1. The author recounts the story of the Jewish Encyclopedia's publication, then analyzes its contents to provide insights into the goals and values of the project's editors and contributors. The author argues that the encyclopedia is an example of Jewish critical response to Darwinism and higher biblical criticism. Its publication marks the transfer of Jewish scholarly hegemony from the old world to the new. Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991 155 Jewish Heroes ofAmerica: American Jewry's Hall of Fame, by Seymour Brody. New York: Shapolsky Publishers, 1991. 202 pp. $8.95. ISBN 1-56171-029-6. This book offers stories of over 100 Jewish men and women, in all fields including science, business, entertainment, politics, civil and women's rights, sports, and war, who have played vital roles in the making of our nation. Jewish Identity in America, edited by David Gordis and Yoav Ben-Horin. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1991. 296 pp. $39.50 (c); $19.95 (p). ISBN 0-88125-365-0 (c); 0-88125-0366-9 (p). Jewish identity is an elusive and ever-changing phenomenon. In the pluralistic American setting its contours are being shaped anew, challenging the Jewish community to respond to new problems, address new needs, and build structures appropriate to new realities. In the range of issues they explore, the chapters of Jewish Identity in America put forward an agenda for the Jewish community as it seeks to maintain continuity and coherence in the face of diversity, fragmentation, and the centrifugal forces of pluralist and secular America. The Jews of Cincinnati, by Jonathan D. Sarna and Nancy H. Klein. Cincinnati : Hebrew Union College Press, 1989. 190 pp. $29.95 (c); $19.95 (p). ISBN 0-9625625-0-5. This volume traces the evolution of one of the centers of American Jewish life from its first Jewish settler in 1817 to the celebration of its bicentennial in 1988-89. Using original sources-memoirs, letters, and newspaper articles as well as three hundred photographs-the book documents the community's changes against the larger background of American Jewish history. Published by the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. Jews on the Frontier: An Account ofJewi~h Pioneers and Settlers in Early America, by 1. Harold Sharfman. Amherst, WI: Amherst Press, 1990. 336 pp. $29.50. ISBN 0-934710-20-1. Although most Jews settled in the heavily populated Eastern cities, in forgotten records the author has discovered a gallery of frontiersmen, traders, explorers, and military leaders (including the celebrated pirate chief, Jean Lafitte), whose lives encompass the events of our history from the French and Indian Wars to the Alamo. 156 SHOFAR Lest We Forget: Remembrances of Cheyenne's Jews...