Review by Carol Poll

In this fascinating book, Adam D. Mendelsohn paints a vivid picture of how “rag picking” in nineteenth-century England and the United States served as the springboard for Jews to enter the middle and upper classes. Dealing in secondhand clothes offered a perfect Jewish “ethnic niche.” It was an aspect of the garment industry that provided few occupational barriers. Little cash was needed to open a stall or store, and none for scouring the street. The stigma of the work made it unappealing and reduced the number of competitors. Itinerant collectors bought, begged, and bartered to get clothing, which in turn was cleaned, repaired, and sold or repurposed into totally new items such as bonnets, cloaks, and aprons. In London there was far more secondhand clothing available and a greater demand for inexpensive clothes, leading to the development of an elaborate system of trade of castoff clothing. In 1843, “The Clothing Exchange” was established and drew over ten thousand people on Sunday, the busiest day. There were one to two thousand Jewish collectors walking the streets of London collecting old clothes to resell or repurpose. This extensive secondhand clothing business schooled Jewish garment entrepreneurs in the production and marketing skills they would later need as manufacturers and retailers of new clothes.

In New York, the development of the garment industry took a slightly different route. There was less used clothing available. Jewish peddlers went into the used clothing trade but in much smaller numbers than their coreligionists in London. Instead, a sizeable number of Jewish men became dry goods peddlers who spread out over the country, drawn by the booming consumer economy in newly developing towns across the nation. The demand for inexpensive clothes remained strong in New York and across the nation. The garment industry responded by developing an inexpensive “ready-made” industry, replacing artisan tailors who created the garment from start to finish with a system of poorly paid “outworkers” to do “piecework.” A manufacturer would begin the process by purchasing and cutting the cloth which was then sent to “outworkers” to finish the process. In 1855, “outworkers” made up an astonishing 91 percent of the workers in the garment industry.

Jews worked on all levels of the American garment industry. They drew upon their Jewish ethnic interconnected network to hire themselves out as workers and to start their own businesses. In 1910, more than 50 percent of Russian-born Jewish men and 44 percent of American-born Jewish men were employed in the production, retail, or wholesale of clothing. Jewish female garment workers typically worked from adolescence until marriage or the birth of their first child, after which they withdrew from full-time work. The garment industry provided many Jewish livelihoods. These experiences in turn led Jews to carve out other new business niches in the entertainment business in Hollywood and Broadway theatre. These entrepreneurial ventures, coupled with their determined efforts to make sure their children received a high education, catapulted American Jews into highly successful lives.

Mendelsohn brings a special expertise to his analysis. He was born in South Africa and draws fascinating comparisons between the Jewish role in the garment industry in the United States and across the British Empire, including in South Africa, Canada, and of course London. The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and The British Empire is an enthralling story that helps explain why the garment industry has sometimes been affectionately referred to as the “shmatte (rag) business.”