Ninety-one letters, ethical wills, bar mitzvah speeches, and other personal records are presented in chronological order following an interpretive essay on the ethical aspirations of American Jewry.

In United States Jewry, 1776-1985, the dean of American Jewish historians, Jacob Rader Marcus, unfolds the history of Jewish immigration, segregation, and integration; of Jewry's cultural exclusiveness and assimilation; of its internal division and indivisible unity; and of its role in the making of America. Characterized by Marcus's impeccable scholarship, meticulous documentation, and readable style, this landmark four-volume set completes the history Marcus began in The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776. The second volume of this seminal work on American Jewry covers the period from 1841 to 1860. Unlike the early Jewish settlers, these immigrants were Ashkenazim from Europe's Germanic countries. Marcus follows the movement of these ""German"" Jews into all regions west of the Hudson River

In United States Jewry, 1776-1985, the dean of American Jewish historians, Jacob Rader Marcus, unfolds the history of Jewish immigration, segregation, and integration; of Jewry's cultural exclusiveness and assimilation; of its internal division and indivisible unity; and of its role in the making of America. Characterized by Marcus's impeccable scholarship, meticulous documentation, and readable style, this landmark four-volume set completes the history Marcus began in The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776. In the fourth and final volume of this set, Marcus deals with the coming and challenge of the East European Jews from 1852 to 1920. He explores settlement and colonization, dispersal to rural areas, life in large cities, the proletarians, the garment industry, the unions, and socialism. He also describes the life of the middle and upper class East European Jew. Special attention is paid to the growth of Zionism. In the epilogue, Marcus writes about the evolution of the ""American Jew.

In United States Jewry, 1776-1985, the dean of American Jewish historians, Jacob Rader Marcus, unfolds the history of Jewish immigration, segregation, and integration; of Jewry's cultural exclusiveness and assimilation; of its internal division and indivisible unity; and of its role in the making of America. Characterized by Marcus's impeccable scholarship, meticulous documentation, and readable style, this landmark four-volume set completes the history Marcus began in The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776. Volume I focuses on the American revolution and the early national period, from 1776 to 1840. Marcus examines the role played by Jews in the revolution and discusses important historical and social themes such as politics, commerce, religion, Jewish and American culture, anti-Jewish prejudices, and the phenomenon of assimilation.

In United States Jewry, 1776-1985, the dean of American Jewish historians, Jacob Rader Marcus, unfolds the history of Jewish immigration, segregation, and integration; of Jewry's cultural exclusiveness and assimilation; of its internal division and indivisible unity; and of its role in the making of America. Characterized by Marcus's impeccable scholarship, meticulous documentation, and readable style, this landmark four-volume set completes the history Marcus began in The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776. The third volume covers the period from 1860 to 1920, beginning with the Jews, slavery, and the Civil War, and concluding with the rise of Reform Judaism as well as the increasing spirit of secularization that characterized emancipated, prosperous, liberal Jewry before it was confronted by a rising tide of American anti-Semitism in the 1920s.

Additional Contributors Are Elias L. Epstein And Alexander Guttmann.