Romance of a People: The First 100 Years of Jewish Life in Chicago

Whenever I get these "100 years of history in 30 minutes" tapes, I start doing the mental division. That's about 3 years per minute, or roughly one year per 20 seconds. I guess we're not going to get to see any lengthy clarinet solos by Benny Goodman or soliloquies from Paul Muni on this tape, even though they are two of Chicago's greatest Jewish entertainers. The program races along breathlessly from Chicago's first synagogue in 1847 to the emergence of the city as the third largest Jewish metropolis in the world in 1930. Along the way, we are given glimpses of Chicago's Concordia Guard, the first all-Jewish regiment in the Civil War; Julius Rosenwald, the illustrious president of Sears Roebuck; the foundation of Northwestern University; the Blackstone Petition; prizefighter Barney Ross; the development of Yiddish culture in the 1920s; immigrant life; the Chicago Fire; the garment industry; the establishment of the museum of science and industry; the history of labor unrest; the cure for cancer and solution to world hunger (although I blinked and might have missed those last two). There is enough material here for 20 episodes of Biography; as a broad overview, though, I suppose this tape is to be commended for cramming so much into so short a period of time. For libraries in Chicago and the Illinois area, or collections with a specific interest in Jewish studies, I would say it's a must purchase. It's a little harder to see how residents of Maine would flip over it. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Ray)