Max White was an odd outsider to late 19th Century American history-with an immigrant's, in particular a Jewish immigrant's, perspective on the economic and social world of his time. As a young man he had some fascinating adventures-among them: in Poland, where he was born and then in London in the 1850s, and in Tampa during the war with the Seminoles, and in Nashville during the American Civil War. He relates these with a story-teller's zest and a sense of humor. He learned his English late; his voice is at once Yiddish in ...
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Max White was an odd outsider to late 19th Century American history-with an immigrant's, in particular a Jewish immigrant's, perspective on the economic and social world of his time. As a young man he had some fascinating adventures-among them: in Poland, where he was born and then in London in the 1850s, and in Tampa during the war with the Seminoles, and in Nashville during the American Civil War. He relates these with a story-teller's zest and a sense of humor. He learned his English late; his voice is at once Yiddish in its inflection and high-flown Victorian in its aspiration. He is a genuine picaresque. As an old man in America he took a religious turn and longed for the Poland of his childhood and the coming heaven where he believed he would be reunited with the sainted souls he left behind in Kalisz. As editor I've tried to clean up his shaky grasp of English grammar and punctuation but have tried to stay try true his engaging voice. I provide an editor's introduction and some images: the frontispiece he designed for his memoir; a page of the handwritten manuscript; and an undated photograph of him at about age fifty. I also provide a postscript that adds some interesting historical and family context.
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