The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread
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Overview
A “scrumptious little book” about the cultural and historical background of this humble and hearty treat (The New York Times).
If smoked salmon and cream cheese bring only one thing to mind, you can count yourself among the world’s millions of bagel mavens. But few people are aware of the bagel’s provenance, let alone its adventuresome history. This charming book tells the remarkable story of the bagel’s journey from the tables of seventeenth-century Poland to the freezers of middle America today, a story rooted in centuries of Polish, Jewish, and American history.
Research in international archives and numerous personal interviews uncover the bagel’s links with the defeat of the Turks by Polish king Jan Sobieski in 1683, the Yiddish cultural revival of the late nineteenth century, and Jewish migration across the Atlantic to America. There the story moves from the bakeries of New York’s Lower East Side to the Bagel Bakers’ Local 388 Union of the 1960s, and the attentions of the mob. Maria Balinska weaves together a rich, quirky, and evocative history of East European Jewry—and the unassuming ring-shaped roll the world has taken to its heart.
“Thought-provoking and fact-filled . . . Uses the bagel as a way of viewing Polish-Jewish history.” —The New York Times
“Gives readers plenty to chew on . . . Thoroughly entertaining.” —The Wall Street Journal
If smoked salmon and cream cheese bring only one thing to mind, you can count yourself among the world’s millions of bagel mavens. But few people are aware of the bagel’s provenance, let alone its adventuresome history. This charming book tells the remarkable story of the bagel’s journey from the tables of seventeenth-century Poland to the freezers of middle America today, a story rooted in centuries of Polish, Jewish, and American history.
Research in international archives and numerous personal interviews uncover the bagel’s links with the defeat of the Turks by Polish king Jan Sobieski in 1683, the Yiddish cultural revival of the late nineteenth century, and Jewish migration across the Atlantic to America. There the story moves from the bakeries of New York’s Lower East Side to the Bagel Bakers’ Local 388 Union of the 1960s, and the attentions of the mob. Maria Balinska weaves together a rich, quirky, and evocative history of East European Jewry—and the unassuming ring-shaped roll the world has taken to its heart.
“Thought-provoking and fact-filled . . . Uses the bagel as a way of viewing Polish-Jewish history.” —The New York Times
“Gives readers plenty to chew on . . . Thoroughly entertaining.” —The Wall Street Journal
”A fascinating and definitive account of the origins and importance in East European Jewish society of this boiled and baked ring of dough which has, surprisingly, become a staple item in the American diet.” —Antony Polonsky
“Don’t just eat it, read it! Maria Balinska, in this illuminating and tasty book, shows that the humble bagel has a rich, complex, (and hotly contested) history.” —Michael Berkowitz, University College London, author of The Jewish Self-Image
“This charming and highly informative book is a surprisingly delightful read, which strays into what seems a byway of history, but in which even readers without her background will find much that is not only amusing but of genuine historical interest.’ —Joseph Frank, Professor Emeritus of Slavic and Comparative Literature, Stanford University
“Maria Balinska combines stories, history and hands-on experience with a style as brisk and toothsome as the crust of a freshly baked bagel and content as dense and flavourful as its skilfully handled dough." —Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food
“Don’t just eat it, read it! Maria Balinska, in this illuminating and tasty book, shows that the humble bagel has a rich, complex, (and hotly contested) history.” —Michael Berkowitz, University College London, author of The Jewish Self-Image
“This charming and highly informative book is a surprisingly delightful read, which strays into what seems a byway of history, but in which even readers without her background will find much that is not only amusing but of genuine historical interest.’ —Joseph Frank, Professor Emeritus of Slavic and Comparative Literature, Stanford University
“Maria Balinska combines stories, history and hands-on experience with a style as brisk and toothsome as the crust of a freshly baked bagel and content as dense and flavourful as its skilfully handled dough." —Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food
- Title: The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread
- Author: Maria Balinska
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 241
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780300142327, 9780300158205, 0300158203, 0300142323
- Resource ID: LLS:9780300142327
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T19:53:31Z
Maria Balinska is editor of BBC Radio’s World Current Affairs department, and a journalist and documentary maker specializing in Eastern Europe and the United States. She lives in London.