{"title":"History \u0026 Cultural Studies","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrowse our History \u0026amp; Cultural Studies collection. New Arrival.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-chosen-game-a-jewish-basketball-history-by-charley-rosen","title":"The Chosen Game: A Jewish Basketball History by Charley Rosen","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA few years after its invention by James Naismith, basketball became the primary sport in the crowded streets of the Jewish neighborhood on New York’s Lower East Side. Participating in the new game was a quick and enjoyable way to become Americanized. Jews not only dominated the sport for the next fifty‑plus years but were also instrumental in modernizing the game.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBarney Sedran was considered the best player in the country at the City College of New York from 1909 to 1911. In 1927 Abe Saperstein took over management of the Harlem Globetrotters, playing a key role in popularizing and integrating the game. Later he helped found the American Basketball Association and introduced the three-point shot. More recently, Nancy Lieberman played in a men’s pro summer league and became the first woman to coach a men’s pro team, and Larry Brown became the only coach to win both NCAA and the NBA championships.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhile the influence of Jewish players, referees, coaches, and administrators has gradually diminished since the mid‑1950s, the current basketball scene features numerous Jews in important positions.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThrough interviews and lively anecdotes from franchise owners, coaches, players, and referees, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Chosen Game\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e explores the contribution of Jews to the evolution of present-day pro basketball.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"LONG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361874108725,"sku":"uyl1787285554869","price":17.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/the-chosen-game-a-jewish-basketball-history-by-charley-rosen_1.jpg?v=1787285560"},{"product_id":"when-basketball-was-jewish-voices-of-those-who-played-the-game-by-douglas-stark","title":"When Basketball Was Jewish: Voices of Those Who Played the Game by Douglas Stark","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn the 2015–16 NBA season, the Jewish presence in the league was largely confined to Adam Silver, the commissioner; David Blatt, the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers; and Omri Casspi, a player for the Sacramento Kings. Basketball, however, was once referred to as a Jewish sport. Shortly after the game was invented at the end of the nineteenth century, it spread throughout the country and became particularly popular among Jewish immigrant children in northeastern cities because it could easily be played in an urban setting. Many of basketball’s early stars were Jewish, including Shikey Gotthoffer, Sonny Hertzberg, Nat Holman, Red Klotz, Dolph Schayes, Moe Spahn, and Max Zaslofsky.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn this oral history collection, Douglas Stark chronicles Jewish basketball throughout the twentieth century, focusing on 1900 to 1960. As told by the prominent voices of twenty people who played, coached, and refereed it, these conversations shed light on what it means to be a Jew and on how the game evolved from its humble origins to the sport enjoyed worldwide by billions of fans today. The game’s development, changes in style, rise in popularity, and national emergence after World War II are narrated by men reliving their youth, when basketball was a game they played for the love of it.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"LONG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361874567477,"sku":"zgr1787285558163","price":18.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/when-basketball-was-jewish-voices-of-those-who-played-the-game-by-douglas-stark_1.jpg?v=1787285563"},{"product_id":"the-passing-game-queering-jewish-american-culture-by-warren-hoffman","title":"The Passing Game: Queering Jewish American Culture by Warren Hoffman","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTony Kushner’s award-winning epic play \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAngels in America\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e was remarkable not only for its sensitive engagement of Jewish-American and gay culture but also for bringing these themes to a mainstream audience. While the play represented a watershed in American theater and culture, it belies a hundred years of previous attention to queer Jewish identity in twentieth-century American literature, drama, and film. In \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Passing Game,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Warren Hoffman sheds light on this long history, taking up both Yiddish and English narratives that explore the tensions among Jewish identity, queer sexuality, performance, and American citizenship. With fresh insight Hoffman examines the 1907 Yiddish play \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGod of Vengeance\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e by Sholem Asch, the cross-dressing films of Yiddish actress Molly Picon, and several short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. He also analyzes the English-language novels\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eThe Rise of David Levinsky\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e (Abraham Cahan),\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eWasteland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e (Jo Sinclair), and Portnoy’s Complaint (Phillip Roth). Hoffman highlights the ways in which the characters in these canonical texts attempt to \"pass\" as white, straight, and American in the early and mid-twentieth century. This pioneering work is a welcome contribution to the study of Jewish American literature and culture.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"LONG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361875026229,"sku":"zre1787285560742","price":17.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/the-passing-game-queering-jewish-american-culture-by-warren-hoffman_1.jpg?v=1787285566"},{"product_id":"the-necessity-of-exile-essays-from-a-distance-by-shaul-magid","title":"The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance by Shaul Magid","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA timely, progressive collection of essays on the Jewish relationship to Zionism and exile.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhat is exile? What is diaspora? What is Zionism? Jewish identity today has been shaped by prior generations’ answers to these questions, and the future of Jewish life will depend on how we respond to them in our own time. In \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, celebrated rabbi and scholar Shaul Magid offers an essential contribution to this intergenerational process, inviting us to rethink our current moment through religious and political resources from the Jewish tradition.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn many levels, Zionism was conceived as an attempt to “end the exile” of the Jewish people, both politically and theologically. In a series of incisive essays, Magid challenges us to consider the price of diminishing or even erasing the exilic character of Jewish life. A thought-provoking work of political imagination, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Necessity of Exile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e reclaims exile as a positive stance for constructive Jewish engagement with Israel\/Palestine, antisemitism, diaspora, and a broken world in need of repair.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"ING","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361875321141,"sku":"jwz1787285562501","price":16.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/the-necessity-of-exile-essays-from-a-distance-by-shaul-magid_1.jpg?v=1787285567"},{"product_id":"karl-marx-philosophy-and-revolution-by-shlomo-avineri","title":"Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution by Shlomo Avineri","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eKarl Marx (1818–1883)—philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, current affairs journalist, and editor—was one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of modern history, but he is rarely thought of as a Jewish thinker, and his Jewish background is either overlooked or misrepresented. Here, distinguished scholar Shlomo Avineri argues that Marx’s Jewish origins did leave a significant impression on his work. Marx was born in Trier, then part of Prussia, and his family had enjoyed equal rights and emancipation under earlier French control of the area. But then its annexation to Prussia deprived the Jewish population of its equal rights. These developments led to the reluctant conversion of Marx’s father, and similar tribulations radicalized many young intellectuals of that time who came from a Jewish background.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAvineri puts Marx’s Jewish background in its proper and balanced perspective, and traces Marx’s intellectual development in light of the historical, intellectual, and political contexts in which he lived.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"TRIL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361875550517,"sku":"naa1787285562686","price":19.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/karl-marx-philosophy-and-revolution-by-shlomo-avineri_1.jpg?v=1787285568"},{"product_id":"leon-trotsky-a-revolutionarys-life-by-joshua-rubenstein","title":"Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life by Joshua Rubenstein","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA clear-eyed exploration of the career of Leon Trotsky, the tragic hero who “dreamed of justice and then wreaked havoc,” by a leading expert on human rights and the former Soviet Union\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn Lev Davidovich Bronstein in southern Ukraine, Trotsky was both a world-class intellectual and a man capable of the most narrow-minded ideological dogmatism. He was an effective military strategist and an adept diplomat, who staked the fate of the Bolshevik revolution on the meager foundation of a Europe-wide Communist upheaval. He was a master politician who played his cards badly in the momentous struggle for power against Stalin in the 1920s. And he was an assimilated, indifferent Jew who was among the first to foresee that Hitler’s triumph would mean disaster for his fellow European Jews, and that Stalin would attempt to forge an alliance with Hitler if Soviet overtures to the Western democracies failed.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHere, Trotsky emerges as a brilliant and brilliantly flawed man. Rubenstein offers us a Trotsky who is mentally acute and impatient with others, one of the finest students of contemporary politics who refused to engage in the nitty-gritty of party organization in the 1920s, when Stalin was maneuvering, inexorably, toward Trotsky’s own political oblivion.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAs Joshua Rubenstein writes in his preface, “Leon Trotsky haunts our historical memory. A preeminent revolutionary figure and a masterful writer, Trotsky led an upheaval that helped to define the contours of twentieth-century politics.” In this lucid and judicious evocation of Trotsky’s life, Joshua Rubenstein gives us an interpretation for the twenty-first century.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"TRIL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53361875943733,"sku":"vzv1787285566453","price":11.36,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/0059\/3717\/files\/leon-trotsky-a-revolutionarys-life-by-joshua-rubenstein_1.jpg?v=1787285571"}],"url":"https:\/\/trelivora.com\/collections\/history-cultural-studies.oembed","provider":"trelivora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}