‘Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side’
edited by Clayton Patterson and Mareleyn Schneider [New York, 2012]
Volume 1 +++++++++++++ Volume 2 ++++++++++++++ Volume 3
Nobody I know is better versed in the history of Manhattan’s Lower East Side than Clayton Patterson. And I’d be willing to bet that nobody at all is more devoted to, or more articulate about, the history of the Jews who lived on the Lower East Side. He was interviewed a year ago — Feb. 13, 2013, to be exact — by Suzannah B. Troy, about the three massive volumes he edited on the subject. Because he’s not Jewish and because the volumes are “a people’s history,” he says, there’s a tendency to think that the account they offer is “incidental” and “less worthy” than better known or more academic books. Dead wrong. Here’s the interview.
