Kimmel contends that the very nature of American childhood changed in the mid-20th century – thanks in large part to these Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Crammed into squalid urban tenements in “a land of both unimaginable riches and entirely familiar bigotries,” he writes, these new Americans imagined an “idealized childhood” that had eluded them. Barred from many professions, they created their own opportunities in newly developing areas, such as entertainment and toys.