This was an insightful book. As an Irish American, it had many interesting bits of information that granted me insight into my own family history.

American Historian Hasia Diner returns with Opening Doors, a study focused on the inter-ethnic support between Jews and Irish in the United States from the 19th century to the 1930s. It is a nuanced study, addressing both the tensions between the two groups, but mostly focusing on the support and cooperation in the areas of pol­i­tics, labor, and edu­ca­tion.

Diner's work is divided into six chapters, each pursuing a specific theme (Chapter 1: American Meeting Places, Chapter 2: Defending the Jews... etc.). Like any strong work of history, they draw from both archives, memoirs and other research based sources. Diner looks at several geographic regions beyond the expected New York, also making note of Scranton, PA, Boston, Chicago and other cities. Diner also highlights the experiences of specific individuals and their work or accomplishments. Chapter 5, Classroom Lessons looks at all levels of education, noting the acceptance of catholic colleges and universities to Jewish students at a time when the ivy league schools had fixed quotas.

Overall it is a positive work showing how in many cases the already established Catholic Irish used their places and power to the benefit of the Jewish immigrants. It was not altruistic, there was give and take, particular of the political persuasion, but together these two groups support each other against the more entrenched and less tolerant protestant power holders.

The time frame covered is of particular importance as this 50 (ish) year block was a peak of immigration from Europe to the United States and ends in the shadow of World War II and the rise of international anti-semitism.

Recommended reading to readers or researchers of American History, inter-group cooperation or American Politics.

If you are a US history lover, then this book is for you. I think this book would also be of interest to Jewish American people who are looking to understand more about their history and things that happened long before they were born, or people just wondering what it was like when coming to America.

The author must have put a lot of research in this books, which is what I liked most about it. It's written as though you are there in the time period of the book. You feel as though you are there when the story takes place, so much so that you could reach out and touch the main characters, smell the atmosphere and hear how the people talked in that period of time.

This book would be great for school use, I think high schoolers would be able to use this book in any projects or papers they write.

3 1/2 stars rounded down. I was slightly disappointed. I was hoping for a book that would give me an insight to some interesting history that I found curious but didn’t know much about. Don’t get me wrong, this had A LOT of information but it was just way too dense for my liking. It felt like a bad history lesson.

There were some interesting parts that I wish the author would have focused on more, while only highlighting other parts. Also, there were sections where she was jumping around in time which had me losing track and needing to reread parts.

Obviously there was a lot of research put into this, the author also obviously knows an extensive amount about this topic, but if your description of the book says “an extraordinary untold story,” then it should be written extraordinarily. This was not that. Great if someone needs to write a research paper regarding this specific topic, but I think if it was written slightly differently using an approach that would draw the reader in and keep them interested (this can be done in history books, I’ve read a few) then this book could appeal to more readers. Great topic, boring execution.

***Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Hasia R. Diner for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review***

This is an interesting book delving into an underexplored aspect of US history. I think this would especially be of interest to Irish Americans or Jewish American people looking to understand more about what our ancestors experienced when coming to America.