Review

There was a huge Jewish exodus from Russia after the assassination on Tsar Alexander II in 1881, and the family of Rose Pastor was part of that, traveling first to London and later to New York, arriving there in November 1890. The family was dirt poor and, after they moved to Cleveland when Rose was 11-years-old, she took a job in a cigar factory (earning about $8 per week), and did this for the next 12 years. In 1903, Rose secured a job as a reporter for the Jewish Daily News in New York for $15 per week. The flood of immigrants to the U.S., peaking in 1907, spawned a "settlement house" movement, set up to allow people of means to enhance the lives of the children in poor neighborhoods. When Rose was asked by her boss to go to the University Settlement on the poor Lower East Side where Rose lived and worked to interview one of the volunteers and a director, she was unaware that her life was about to change. The young man she interviewed was James Graham Phelps Stokes ("Graham"), part of an extremely wealthy family at the top of the social ladder in New York, and they were attracted to each other. Graham thought of himself as a reformer and took his commitment to the University Settlement seriously. When he moved into its building, The New York Times noted with a front-page headline "J.G. Phelps Stokes on Lower East Side." They were engaged a year later and married over the objections of his parents, upset that their son was marrying a woman of a much lower class, of a different faith (Jewish), and a growing activist, writing and speaking about ideas counter to the beliefs of the family. To the public, this Cinderella story was irresistible and, a year after their marriage, the couple moved from the Lower East Side to a family-owned island in Long Island Sound just off Stamford, Connecticut (a gift from Graham's mother). Originally called Waite's Island, Rose renamed it Caritas Island. That same year they both joined the Socialist Party. Rose, in particular, had become obsessed with poverty and inequality and poor working conditions, all of which she had experienced herself. She became an eloquent, inspirational speaker about these injustices and her friends and house guests included the likes of Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, Margaret Sanger, and W.E.B. DuBois. She campaigned for the early feminists, led strikes of restaurant and garment workers (the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist fire in Manhattan happened in 1911) to the point where President Wilson called her "one of the dangerous influences in the country." She later joined the Communist Party and cheered the Russian Revolution of 1918. Author Hochschild is an experienced hand and his portrayal of Rose Pastor Stokes and her activism is excellent, providing a good history of the times.

< Back