Contents
Preface
Introduction. "A Never Failing Source of Interest to Us":
Jewish American Literature and the Sense of Place—1-13
Chapter One. "In this vestibule of God's holy temple": the
frontier accounts of Solomon Carvalho and Israel Joseph Benjamin,
1857-1862—14-55
Chapter Two. Colonial revival in the immigrant city: the
invention of Jewish American urban history, 1870-1910—56-98
Chapter Three. "A rare good fortune to anyone": Joseph
Leiser's and Edna Ferber's reminiscences of small-town Jewish life,
1909-1939—99-144
Chapter Four. "The longed for pastoral": images of exurban
exile in Philip Roth's American Pastoral (1997) and Allegra
Goodman's Kaaterskill Falls (1998)—145-186
Chapter Five. Return to the shtetl: following the
"topological turn" in Rebecca Goldstein's Mazel (1995) and Jonathan
Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated (2002)—187-227
Chapter Six. Turning dreamscapes into landscapes on the "Wild
West Bank" frontier: Jon
Papernick's The Ascent of Eli Israel (2002) and Risa Miller's
Welcome to Heavenly Heights (2003)—228-266
Conclusion. Mystical encounters and ordinary
places—267-276
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
MICHAEL HOBERMAN is a professor of English studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. He is the author of several books, including New Israel/New England: Jews and Puritans in Early America.
"Michael Hoberman has opened up freshly the pathway in Jewish
American writings about the sense of place, how Jewish life in
America has come to be and feel at home."— Jules Chametzky,
professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; founder and editor
of The Massachusetts Review
"At once critically imaginative and rigorously methodological, A
Hundred Acres of America is a genuinely exciting, pathbreaking work
of breathtaking historical, geographical, and cultural scope."—
Ranen Omer-Sherman, JHFE Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the
University of Louisville
"Hoberman brilliantly revises notions of how quintessentially
American landscapes shaped American Jewish writing. Elegantly
written and cogently argued, this study unsettles the stories we
think we know about Jewish immigration and territorial belonging in
America."— Rachel Rubinstein, author of Members of the Tribe:
Native America in the Jewish Imagination
"A Hundred Acres is a worthy and lucid genealogy of the
under-explored Jewish American geographical imagination, presented
convincingly as an engagement with as well as departure from
certain forms of dominant U.S. spatiality. Hoberman's nimble
treatment of key texts captures the Jewish stamp on iconic American
places, from 'the frontier' to the city and the 'suburban
pastoral' as well as the Americanization of Jewish spaces
elsewhere and, importantly, contributes to a shift
in Jewish American literary scholarship away from the
classic topics of immigration and assimilation toward a
multidimensional criticism."— Dalia Kandiyoti, author of Migrant
Sites: America, Place, and Diaspora Literatures
"The Jewish Preview of Books—December 2018" by Rachel Scheinerman—
The Jewish Review of Books
"The book discusses a variety of places important to Americans,
including the evolving West of the 19th century, the small towns of
the Midwest and 20th-century suburbia. It ends with a landscape
that has been significant to the Jewish people for thousands of
years: Israel [and] suggests that the works it examines ask
questions that aren't easy to answer — but then asking hard
questions is a sign of good literature."— Greenfield Reporter
"Highly recommended."— Choice
"Hoberman Reads from Book," mention in The Shelburne Falls and West
County Independent— The Shelburne Falls/West County Independent
"June 8-9, 2019: Jewish American Journeys: Michael Hoberman's
Books"
http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/06/june-8-9-2019-jewish-american-journeys.html—
American Studies Blog
"Hoberman's study...challenges us to reconsider what the canon of
our literature ought to be in a series of original readings of
both obscure and major figures whose vision of landscape — above
all sites of memory and myth — shaped their vision of America in
rich and striking ways."— Jewish Book Council
"Carefully chosen, sensitively read, historically contextualized,
and situated within the broader currents of American
literature....An apt reminder that Jews' engagement with place has
always been fraught and that the places that we take for granted
are always in the midst of being imagined and invented, a process
that is almost never innocent."— Marginalia
"Hoberman engages effectively with many important voices in the
study of Jewish American literature today. [A] stimulating study
that significantly refigures Jewish American literature."— American
Studies in Scandinavia
"The richness of Hoberman's work is partly a feature of its
extensive chronology, which includes 150 years of literary history,
and partly due to his careful comparisons that are geographically,
literarily, religiously and culturally diverse and bring together
an uncommon range of places, authors, texts, and histories.
Hoberman offers a fresh perspective on a body of literature."—
MELUS
"Short, smart, and pithy."— Shofar
"Jews Out West 18th-century Jewish American writers described
America's vastness in lyrical—and liturgical—terms" by Michael
Hoberman— Tablet Magazine
""Heterogeneous, well-researched, and well-written."— American
Jewish History
"American Pastorals" by Michael Hoberman— Tablet Magazine
"Hoberman Reads from Book," mention in The Shelburne Falls and West
County Independent— The Shelburne Falls/West County Independent
"American Pastorals" by Michael Hoberman— Tablet Magazine
"The Jewish Preview of Books—December 2018" by Rachel Scheinerman—
The Jewish Review of Books
"Hoberman brilliantly revises notions of how quintessentially
American landscapes shaped American Jewish writing. Elegantly
written and cogently argued, this study unsettles the stories we
think we know about Jewish immigration and territorial belonging in
America."— Rachel Rubinstein, author of Members of the Tribe:
Native America in the Jewish Imagination
"Hoberman engages effectively with many important voices in the
study of Jewish American literature today. [A] stimulating study
that significantly refigures Jewish American literature."— American
Studies in Scandinavia
"Jews Out West 18th-century Jewish American writers described
America's vastness in lyrical—and liturgical—terms" by Michael
Hoberman— Tablet Magazine
"A Hundred Acres is a worthy and lucid genealogy of the
under-explored Jewish American geographical imagination, presented
convincingly as an engagement with as well as departure from
certain forms of dominant U.S. spatiality. Hoberman's nimble
treatment of key texts captures the Jewish stamp on iconic American
places, from 'the frontier' to the city and the 'suburban
pastoral' as well as the Americanization of Jewish spaces
elsewhere and, importantly, contributes to a shift
in Jewish American literary scholarship away from the
classic topics of immigration and assimilation toward a
multidimensional criticism."— Dalia Kandiyoti, author of Migrant
Sites: America, Place, and Diaspora Literatures
"The book discusses a variety of places important to Americans,
including the evolving West of the 19th century, the small towns of
the Midwest and 20th-century suburbia. It ends with a landscape
that has been significant to the Jewish people for thousands of
years: Israel [and] suggests that the works it examines ask
questions that aren't easy to answer — but then asking hard
questions is a sign of good literature."— Greenfield Reporter
"Hoberman's study...challenges us to reconsider what the canon of
our literature ought to be in a series of original readings of
both obscure and major figures whose vision of landscape — above
all sites of memory and myth — shaped their vision of America in
rich and striking ways."— Jewish Book Council
"Highly recommended."— Choice
"Michael Hoberman has opened up freshly the pathway in Jewish
American writings about the sense of place, how Jewish life in
America has come to be and feel at home."— Jules Chametzky,
professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; founder and editor
of The Massachusetts Review
"The richness of Hoberman's work is partly a feature of its
extensive chronology, which includes 150 years of literary history,
and partly due to his careful comparisons that are geographically,
literarily, religiously and culturally diverse and bring together
an uncommon range of places, authors, texts, and histories.
Hoberman offers a fresh perspective on a body of literature."—
MELUS
"June 8-9, 2019: Jewish American Journeys: Michael Hoberman's
Books"
http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/06/june-8-9-2019-jewish-american-journeys.html—
American Studies Blog
"Short, smart, and pithy."— Shofar
"Carefully chosen, sensitively read, historically contextualized,
and situated within the broader currents of American
literature....An apt reminder that Jews' engagement with place has
always been fraught and that the places that we take for granted
are always in the midst of being imagined and invented, a process
that is almost never innocent."— Marginalia
""Heterogeneous, well-researched, and well-written."— American
Jewish History
"At once critically imaginative and rigorously methodological, A
Hundred Acres of America is a genuinely exciting, pathbreaking work
of breathtaking historical, geographical, and cultural scope."—
Ranen Omer-Sherman, JHFE Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the
University of Louisville
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