Jews and the American Soul

"Why do Americans worry so about their souls? Andrew Heinze's amazing book offers an amazing answer--an extraordinary and unexpected dialogue among modern American Jewish writers and figures about the essence of humanity, the soul. Ranging across American Jewish writing on psychology, neurosis, self-help, humanism, and the Holocaust, Heinze explains how Jewish intellectuals uncovered and explicated the marrow of American identity even as, or precisely because, they sought to secure their place in an America that did not always want them. Heinze uplifts an unexpected, enlightening story with insight, grace, and not infrequent irony--a simply fascinating read."--Jon Butler, Yale University

"This telling of the American story gives a clarifying resonance to a heretofore muted theme. The nation's culture, politics, and civic religion have been powerfully influenced by Jewish contributions. But it has taken this vigorous work by Andrew Heinze to make them plain. This book will surely change the way America understands itself."--James Carroll, author of the bestselling "Constantine's Sword"

""Jews and the American Soul" is the most forthright, probing, nuanced, and carefully documented book yet addressed to the ways in which modern American culture has been influenced by Jews. A truly distinctive work of American history."--David Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley

"I do not know any books like this one. Heinze concludes that Jewish ways of thinking about human personality and the meaning of human life have spread to millions of Americans. The implications of this conclusion are startling. A wonderful, compelling book, a major accomplishment. It has changed the way I thinkabout the 'American soul.'"--Deborah Dash Moore, Vassar College

"Andrew Heinze's "Jews and the American Soul" is a shrewd and unsettling account of the influence of some surprising Jewish figures upon contemporary popular culture in the United States."--Harold Bloom, author of "The Western Canon" and "The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation"