{"product_id":"playmakers-the-jewish-entrepreneurs-who-created-the-toy-industry-in-america-9781324105282","title":"Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear--bound by clothing scraps, stuffed with sawdust, and given button eyes with a sad, longing expression--in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Together they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation, joining a set of other poor, first-generation Jewish toymakers: the Hassenfeld brothers of Hasbro, Ruth Moskowicz and Elliot Handler of Mattel, and Joshua Lionel Cowan of Lionel Trains.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom Barbie and G.I. Joe to Popeye, Superman, and Mr. Potato Head, \u003cem\u003ePlaymakers\u003c\/em\u003e reveals how the toy industry created the idealized American childhood: an enchanted world, full of wild creatures and eternal struggles between good and evil, with endless realms of fantasy and beauty. For much of the twentieth century, every part of the American toy business was largely Jewish--the company founders, executives, and designers, as well as the factory workers, wholesale distributors, retail outlets, and armies of salesmen. A descendant of the founders of the Ideal Toy Corporation, Michael Kimmel shows how these poor, often Yiddish-speaking, tenement-dwelling children of immigrants invented a world they never experienced for themselves. Along with the toys and Jewish toymakers that climbed the ladder of success, Kimmel also portrays the rise of an entire culture focused on children, led by Jewish comic book creators, children's authors, parenting experts, and child psychologists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first full-scale toy history of the United States, Kimmel's story conjures the colorful, imaginative, restless spirits who followed the promise of the American Dream--and describes the ways in which the world they came from molded their beloved creations. \u003cem\u003ePlaymakers\u003c\/em\u003e shows that the overlapping experiences of being a Jew, an immigrant, and a child in twentieth-century America--an outsider looking in, a person desperate to be accepted--created childhood as we know it today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael Kimmel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 432\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.10w x 1.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781324105282\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/16\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKimmel, Michael:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - The great-grandnephew of the founder of the Ideal Toy Corporation, \u003cstrong\u003eMichael Kimmel\u003c\/strong\u003e is a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and gender studies and founder of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University. The author of \u003cem\u003eGuyland\u003c\/em\u003e, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Michael Kimmel \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":47674856865949,"sku":"9781324105282","price":52.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_a132d27e-2d9f-4002-83d1-4026b102f232.jpg?v=1771914642","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/playmakers-the-jewish-entrepreneurs-who-created-the-toy-industry-in-america-9781324105282","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}