Artikel

Het Joodse getto in Amerika, met name in Chicago

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Abstract

The ghetto in America, with special reference to Chicago – This article offers a synopsis of chapters VIII-XIII from the classic work The Ghetto, published by the American sociologist Louis Wirth (1897-1952), a prominent member of the sociological school of Chicago (1915-1935). The original text of this work was completed in 1925 and submitted as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago in 1926. This University also brought out the first commercial edition in 1928. For our synopsis we made use of the Midway reprint of The Ghetto, published by the University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, in 1982. This book by Louis Wirth was amply introduced and situated in the essay The Jewish ghetto in the light of the sociology of Chicago (Het joodse getto in het licht van de sociologie van Chicago, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen, 35e jaargang, 3, 1990, pp. 219-234). Therefore we prefer to confine ourselves in the first paragraph of this article to some small annotations about the content, the context and the sources of the summarized chapters. Wirth’s classic dates from 1925. Although it seems therefore out of date, The Ghetto offers a still relevant analysis and a lively picture of Jewry and Judaism in America and Chicago. We point out that the argumentation offered by Louis Wirth locally betrays personal preferences and subjective valuations with regard to Jewish orthodoxy. Possibly the author’s own adventures as a laboriously assimilated Jew plays a certain part here. Nevertheless, more than half a century after its publication his book remains a fascinating and original piece of work, a real classic indeed with a lasting significance.

How to Cite:

Goddijn, H., (1991) “Het Joodse getto in Amerika, met name in Chicago”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 36(1), 40–66. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95064