A review by kbrsuperstar
Cheap Amusements by Kathy Peiss

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Wow, I loved this book so much more than I expected I would. I thought this would be one of those books where the material was interesting but the writing was a bit dry but no, Peiss did an amazing job here. She sets the time and place well, she pulls these direct quotes out of 100-year-old interviews that made these immigrant women feel alive (I legit choked up more than once reading them), she really deftly explains all the ways these women had unprecedented freedoms but they were still held back in so many other ways, she makes clear where the limitations of her research are and that despite all being immigrants, their experiences were not universal etc.
I feel like I could keep going on here but I'll just say if you have any interest in the subject at all, do yourself a favor and find a copy of this.