Great Lives from History

These four volumes collect 646 signed essays on 653 famous and nonfamous native and immigrant Jewish Americans, including 124 women. Covering Jewish Americans from Colonial times through the present, each article includes biographical information and alternate names and spellings, as well as the person's early life, work, and his or her significance, along with suggested further readings and cross-references. Each entry is between 1000 and 1500 words, and the set includes some 350 photographs. What makes this set truly valuable are the appendixes: a chronological list of entries, a bibliography, an annotated mediagraphy, an annotated list of fictional works, a website directory, an annotated list of research centers and libraries, and an annotated list of organizations and societies. Finally, four indexes enable readers to find entries based on category, geography, personage, and subject. Medoff (The A to Z of Zionism) is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. BOTTOM LINE Public libraries, colleges, high schools, and middle schools will all benefit from the entries as starting points for additional biographical research as well as research on Jewish American contributions. These are not straightforward biographies but rather critical essays, emphasizing achievements.—Sara Marcus, Queens Coll., Bayside, NY