The childhood reminiscences of a hundred men and women as young as 22 and as old as 99 combine to create a unique portrait of Jewish-American life in the twentieth century, with all its vibrancy, complexity, humor, and contradictions. Here are memories of how place stamped personality in landscapes as diverse as Auburn, Maine, and Mitchell, South Dakota; Brooklyn, New York, and Laredo, Texas; Seattle, Washington, and Westminster, South Carolina; and countless gilded suburbs.

Some recollections are common to most growing-up-in-America sagas; others are unique to the Jewish experience.