cover image A Perfect Fit: 
The Garment Industry and American Jewry, 1860–1960

A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry, 1860–1960

Edited by Gabriel M. Goldstein and Elizabeth E. Greenberg. Texas Tech Univ, $49.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-89672-735-9

The curator (Goldstein) and assistant curator (Greenberg) of a 2005 exhibit at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City bring together scholars of fashion, Jewish identity, and labor relations who illustrate how, as early as the 1820s, Jewish immigrants came to dominate the American fashion world—or “rag trade.” Several contributors note how Jews pioneered mass-produced ready-made clothes. The volume also reveals how clothes manufacturing, first in small sweatshops, then in larger factories, spread from New York City to such midsize cities as Rochester, N.Y., and Kansas City, Mo., where companies specialized in such post-WWII niche clothing as bowling shirts and maternity wear. One particularly valuable essay by Hasia Diner, a historian of American Jewry, explores the significant role the selling of clothes (often door-to-door) contributed to American Jewish identity and perceptions of Jews in the pre–Civil War era. Equally notable is labor historian Richard Greenwald’s essay on how the 1910 “Protocol of Peace” ended a strike by men’s garment industry workers and initiated a new paradigm for resolving labor disputes. The writing is generally succinct and informative, and this fine contribution to both fashion and American Jewish history is significantly enhanced by the number and variety of the 152 color illustrations. (June)