Special Sorrows

"A scholarly study of the real roots of what Jacobson calls 'America's largely assimilated but ultimately "unmeltable" ethics.' It's a startling point of view for readers who are accustomed to the self-congratulatory myth of America as a beacon of liberty to which the 'huddled masses' of the world look with longing." - Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times "A pathbreaking work.... A critically important step in furthering the discussion of the way in which race has interacted with immigrant adjustment and national construction. By examining how nationalism played a role in the adjustment process of Irish, Polish and Jewish immigrants in the United States at the turn of the century, Jacobson does more than take us into the imaginative mind of these three groups. He also links the movement into whiteness with reflections on the imperial involvement of the United States in the Spanish-Cuban conflict and the Philippines in 1898." - George Sanchez, Journal of American Ethnic History "Jacobson's pathbreaking and provocative book focuses on the continuing Old World attachments of America's Irish, Polish, and East European Jewish immigrants. Using an impressive array of foreign-language sources, Jacobson demonstrates that nationalist images rooted in the Old World suffused both popular and literary immigrant culture.... This is one of the most significant studies of immigrant life in a many a year." - J. D. Sarna, from CHOICE "Jacobson's book impressively lives up to its stark and splendid title, which borrows Special Sorrows from the Polish Jewish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg's capsule description of the bonds uniting people into nations. For the immigrants whom Jacobson considers, nationalist sorrows seemed especially tragic, as they were felt and resisted in exile from the nations whose causes were being championed. Special Sorrows carefully delineates the centrality of Jewish, Polish and Irish supporters in the United States to national liberation movements abroad and, as expertly, details how such movements shaped immigrant life in the United States." - David Roediger, from the Foreword