Rating: 
Summary: A Slice of Story Please
Review: Even if you can't visit the bakeries and restaurants of the Lower East Side (and you should) you can enjoy the ethnic flavors by reading Joyce Mendelsohn's book. Like the best historians, she tells stories of the past from a present-day perspective. New York is a city of remakes, architectural and cultural--Mendelsohn combines both. As a former History teacher, I recommend it for a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent history and fun too
Review: I found this book to be an incredible resource for me, in my wanderings around the City. From the history of the African burial grounds to finding the best doughnuts, this is a great book. I read most of it from my couch, but then took it with me when I went looking for Napoleon Le Brun firehouses. The details of the history are among the best I've seen published.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent history and fun too
Review: I found this book to be an incredible resource for me, in my wanderings around the City. From the history of the African burial grounds to finding the best doughnuts, this is a great book. I read most of it from my couch, but then took it with me when I went looking for Napoleon Le Brun firehouses. The details of the history are among the best I've seen published.
Rating:
Summary: A non New Yorker's perspective
Review: I often visited New York on business for three or four days and each time would try to take in some of the cultural, but also a feel for the ethnic neighborhoods and history of the city. This book has added insight and drama to my brief excursions. It is easy to follow and touches all the pertinent items for understanding what the neighborhoods were and you can get a feel of what they meant to the future of a great city, and what they continue to mean. The book acts as a true guide without any embellishment and therefore every page gives meaning to what you are viewing. I would not dream of going back to the lower east side, which I intend to do many more times, without this book in hand. Kudos to Joyce Mendelsohn !!!
Rating:
Summary: A non New Yorker's perspective
Review: I often visited New York on business for three or four days and each time would try to take in some of the cultural, but also a feel for the ethnic neighborhoods and history of the city. This book has added insight and drama to my brief excursions. It is easy to follow and touches all the pertinent items for understanding what the neighborhoods were and you can get a feel of what they meant to the future of a great city, and what they continue to mean. The book acts as a true guide without any embellishment and therefore every page gives meaning to what you are viewing. I would not dream of going back to the lower east side, which I intend to do many more times, without this book in hand. Kudos to Joyce Mendelsohn !!!
Rating:
Summary: The Lower East Side - Remembered and Revisited
Review: Joyce Mendelsohn gives an excellent walking tour of the Lower East Side pointing out landmarks with interesting facts and accurate accounts of the rich history here. Anyone who lives on the Lower East Side or whose relatives came from the Lower East Side should read this book complete with period and modern photographs. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: A Glorious Celebration of a Great American Neighborhood
Review: This affectionate, richly illustrated little book celebrates and guides us through the unique and legendary neighborhood -- Manhattan's Lower East Side -- that has served generations of immigrants from around the world as "the gateway to the American Dream." Written by one of the most popular of New York's scholarly historic tour leaders (she also served from 1992-94 as Director of Education at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum), the text is organized as a set of overlapping walking tours of the district. But with her deep knowledge of her subject, Mendelsohn easily transcends the guidebook genre. What she give us here is an original, insightful, wonderfully satisfying history, fairly overflowing with the personalities, anecdotes, institutions and images that have made the Lower East Side a legendary New York neighborhood and a cornerstone of the immigrant experience -- especially, but far from exclusively, the Jewish immigrant experience -- in America.
Rating:
Summary: ancestry lessons for New Yorkers
Review: This book is a lesson in family roots through the streets of the lower east side. It is a wonderful trip through the past and present walking by architectural treasures and memories of our forefathers. This author has done some remarkable research on this lesser known NYC area attraction.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Find
Review: This is a book that every New Yorker should own and every Jewish family in America should cherish. It's thoroughly researched - full of interesting information -- very well written and designed. I counted over 100 photographs that I had never seen before (including a priceless amateur shot of Charlie Chaplin). In the intro, the author traces the history of the Lower East Side mainly by following the succession of the various immigrant groups -- Irish, Italian, German, Jews, Chinese and Hispanics -- who first settled in the neighborhood. There is no doubt that the Lower East Side was the heart of the American Jewish experience and that the Jewish heritage remains vital. Layers and layers of Jewish history are still evident in the synagogues, yeshivas, social service organizations and stores that are thriving. Then, its off to four walking tours -- either on foot or sitting in a comfortable chair at home. The author points out synagogues, churches, Buddhist temples, settlement houses, tenements, shops and much more. There are some real finds in the book. Did you know about the Second African Burial Ground? Or the garden where Chinese men bring their caged birds to sing every morning? Or the Boss Tweed connection to the Lower East Side? Or its architectural treasures -- including buildings by McKim Mead & White, Emery Roth, Howells & Hood, York & Sawyer and other eminent architects? Hint: check the index. You'll come across such names as Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Edward G. Robinson, Emma Goldman and Lenin. Lenin? The book is a great read and a great gift.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Find
Review: This is a book that every New Yorker should own and every Jewish family in America should cherish. It's thoroughly researched - full of interesting information -- very well written and designed. I counted over 100 photographs that I had never seen before (including a priceless amateur shot of Charlie Chaplin). In the intro, the author traces the history of the Lower East Side mainly by following the succession of the various immigrant groups -- Irish, Italian, German, Jews, Chinese and Hispanics -- who first settled in the neighborhood. There is no doubt that the Lower East Side was the heart of the American Jewish experience and that the Jewish heritage remains vital. Layers and layers of Jewish history are still evident in the synagogues, yeshivas, social service organizations and stores that are thriving. Then, its off to four walking tours -- either on foot or sitting in a comfortable chair at home. The author points out synagogues, churches, Buddhist temples, settlement houses, tenements, shops and much more. There are some real finds in the book. Did you know about the Second African Burial Ground? Or the garden where Chinese men bring their caged birds to sing every morning? Or the Boss Tweed connection to the Lower East Side? Or its architectural treasures -- including buildings by McKim Mead & White, Emery Roth, Howells & Hood, York & Sawyer and other eminent architects? Hint: check the index. You'll come across such names as Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Edward G. Robinson, Emma Goldman and Lenin. Lenin? The book is a great read and a great gift.
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