Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post-Civil Rights America

In this intriguing and closely argued book, Jacobson tells the story of how it came to be fashionable for white Americans to rediscover their ethnic heritage-be it Italian or Irish, Jewish or Catholic-and how many of them made this into a ""usable past"" to forge a sense of identity, a quasi backlash to the civil rights movements of the '60s that occurred less on the front page than on the big screen (think Godfather, Rocky, or My Big Fat Greek Wedding). One of the book's strongest assets is the large number of examples and case studies Jacobson provides, including accounts of Michael Dukakis's relentless invocation of his Greek background during his failed presidential campaign and how artist Judy Chicago's ""evolving sense of Jewishness"" became central to her work. (Though Jacobson can let these stories run too long and lose track of his arguments.) He also discusses books like Portnoy's Complaint and movies like Working Girl in an excessively serious and jargony manner that's at odds with the rest of the book, which is intelligent without coming off as stuffy. Jacobson's considerable achievement is how he avoids reducing ethnic revival to simple multiculturalism or the inevitable result of the fabled hard-working Ellis Island immigrant. Photos.