Why the Jews?

How Jewish Values Transformed Twentieth Century American Pop Culture

Robert Cherry

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538143131
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Historia judía

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Jewish immigrants upended Protestant control of vaudeville and the silent film industry. This book rejects the commonly held explanations for this shift: Jewish commercial acumen and their desire to assimilate. Instead, this book argues that the "pleasure principle"—a positive view of bodily pleasures and sexuality that Jewish immigrants held ––gave rise to the role of Jewish influence on popular culture, an influence still felt today.

After discussing the pivotal ascendancy of Jews in vaudeville and silent films, Cherry explores the important role that Jewish performers and middlemen played in the evolution of popular culture throughout the century, from stage and the big screen to radio, television, and the music industry. He concludes with a broader discussion of Jewish values that helps explain the continued outsized role that Jews continue to play in American popular culture.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction Jewish Values and Popular Culture
• Chapter 1 Contrasting Immigrant Religious Beliefs
• Chapter 2 Irish Catholic Immigrants and Wholesome Vaudeville
• Chapter 3 Jewish Vaudeville Ascendancy
• Chapter 4 Jewish Influence during the Silent Film Era
• Chapter 5 The 1930s Movie Moguls: Louis B. Mayer and Warner Brothers
• Chapter 6 The Jewish Community and Black Music
• Chapter 7 The Jewish Role in the Rise of the Broadway Musical
• Chapter 8 Jewish Jazz Performers and Middlemen
• Chapter 9 Radio and Early Televisio: Jewish Owners, Comedy Writers, and Vaudevillians
• Chapter 10 The Postwar Period
• Appendix The Origins of Jewish Views on Bodily Pleasure
• Notes
• About the Author