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February 2017 Vol. 54 No. 6

Reiter’s superb history of the Canadian Jewish Left’s politics, culture, arts, language, and gender issues uses primary source material to effectively represent impressive, rich clarity of voice for the people and times depicted. Nine chapters are grouped in three parts. Part 1 details the immigration, adaptive, and cultural experiences of Jewish leftists, part 2 focuses on politics, including women’s participation, through the Red Scare era, and part 3 details the significant linguistic and cultural contributions of the Jewish Left. The seemingly narrow topic actually manages a broad sweep of North American history by setting the Jewish Left in multiple contexts. Reiter (emer., women’s, sexuality, and gender studies, York Univ., Canada) clearly explains and illustrates complex ideas and events with quotes. The book’s topical sections include some chronological overlap, reinforcing seminal events such as the Canadian Jewish Congress’s expulsion of the United Jewish People’s Order in 1951. In response to Canadian government displeasure at Jewish Left support for the Stockholm Peace Petition, the editor of Winnipeg’s The Jewish Post wrote, “National Jewish organizations know how to clean house without the imposition of any outside coercive or restrictive measure.”

--A. Lieberman Colgan, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.