Comrades and Chicken Ranchers: The Story of a California Jewish Community (Cornell Paperbacks)

Rating:
Summary: An engaging telling--
Review: This is a delightful vignette of Jewish refugee intellectuals
in a pre WW II small town north of the Bay Area. Identified
for chicken raising it is shown to have been the West Coast center for the refugee intelligentsia hosting the distinguished visitors of that period It is rich in authenticity--oral his-
tories and prescence--and just plain good reading.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Comrades and Chicken Ranchers by K. Kann
Review: This is a marvelous oral history of the Jewish community in Petaluma, CA. It was a joy to read. I cannot recommend it too highly.

There is no narrative history in this book. Before I read it I thought I might feel that there was something missing because of the lack of narrative history. I was amazed by how rich and interesting the history is in the telling by the people who lived it -- it shows the humanity of history, the feel of lives and all that goes with them.