The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread

by Maria Balinska

A captivating cultural history of the bagel and its journey through the centuries

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 of often surprising connections between a cheap market-day snack and 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. For all its modest size, the bagel has managed to bridge cultural gaps, rescue kings from obscurity, charge the emotions, and challenge received wisdom. 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.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Cookbooks, Jewish, Audiobook

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and quick read. The author, a serious academic, writes in a clear, concise, and tongue-in-cheek manner.
There are also images, showing the bagel's place in art. Clearly the best is the Madonna and Child with the baby Jesus is holding a bagel.
In conclusion, BAGELS.

[Josh Mirabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written and engaging book. Reading it made me want bagels 24/7 and I feel even more in love with bagels than I did before. It was a lot of Polish and American labor history, which was definitely dense at times but I knew what I was getting myself into! I've got an incredible appreciation for the bakers of centuries past and will never again take for granted ovens or cheap flour or fair labor laws.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book has a great beginning too quickly it becomes a stale institutional history about labour organizing amongst Jewish bakers. I had to skip over a couple of chapters because it was just so dry.
Sadly the promised comparisons between different types of bagels merited only a couple of pages at the end.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let the people eat bagels!!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was quite relevant for me given our work on Albany Bagel Co., and it is a really thorough history of the bagel. One thing that the book served to emphasize is how much the history of the bagel overlaps with the history of Judaism in Europe and America. If you're interested in that topic this will give an interesting lens on it. For me it was a good reminder that even though bagels have been completely assimilated into mainstream American culture, what we're doing w/ ABC is still a bit of cultural appropriation. I think I'm OK with that given the non-profit nature of the business, etc., but it's still important for us to keep in mind.

Anyway, great read. Thanks Chad!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of people must have received this cute little mini-coffee table book as a Xmas/Hanukkah gift. The unsuspecting reader soon finds herself deep in the history of the Jews of Eastern Europe. So far King Jan Sobieski and the artist Artur Szyk have made appearances. Paging forward we see the album cover of "Bagels and Bongos" by the Irving Fields Trio and a promo for the Ed Sullivan Show featuring Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara holding up, respectively, a bagel and a shamrock. Lastly, the reader mysteriously craves -- what, a bagel?

[Hermien · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book linking the bagel to labour union movements, marketing and jewish history and tradition.

[Christoph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short read. The author tells the history of the bagel along its historic context. So while learning about bagel history, I learned quite a lot about Jewish history in Europe and the US as well as unions in the US, and a lot of other interesting facts along the way. The style reminded me a little bit of Bill Bryson's work.
The only negative thing I had while reading: Sometimes the timelines get a little bit confusing. The author jumps especially in the mid-20th century history between different timelines.
But aside from that, read it while having a few bagels.

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't get through this book without recommending it to everyone I talked to. The first 1/2 was less "history of the bagel" than "history of the Jews as seen through the bagel," which is fascinating. The rest really was the history of the bagel, which was also interesting. I'm left wanting to try bagels of different countries to see what they're like. Put that on my list of things to do some day.

[Mary Rude · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this cute little book about the history of the bagel. Some sections were more interesting than others (I couldn't really get into the section about the bakers' union), and structurally it seems to be a little disjointed. But I thought the stories about the origins of the bagel and the culture of bagel selling in Poland were fascinating, and it has made me want to eat a lot more bagels!

[David Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book gives a fascinating history of the Bagel ... but more than a history, the book goes into varities of wheat, the history of Poland and Lithuania (which is ofinterest because my family came from there), how the potato came to eastern Europe, the settlement of New York, the manufacturing process, unionization, advertizing, and thee Lender family. There are lots of interesting pictures also.

[Ralphz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting look at the bagel, from its invention in, apparently, Poland in the 14th century to its Americanzation in the late 20th century.

Of course, the story of the bagel is the story of Jews, from their struggles in Eastern Europe to their move into the New World.

Jews brought their food, and Yiddish language, with them mostly to New York. There, they grew their businesses, with unions and union-busting by Jews who made bagels and Jews who ran the bakeries.

By the '60s, the bread moves to the middle of the country and into the mainstream.

There's more to it than just a tasty treat, and it's worth it to read and find out more.

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of the bagel honestly blows my mind. To learn that what we consider today to be a “normal bagel” differs so greatly from what it used to be makes me yearn to try the real deal. The discussion as well on how machines could not properly replicate the bagel also led me to draw many comparisons to the current use of AI, and the argument that we lose something when automating art.

[Yaakov Bressler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun dive into the history of bagels - sadly, doesn’t go deep as much as I’d expect. Reads a bit like investigative journalism - you get the current events around one or 2 keys players, and the rest is not included.

I wanted to understand the history of bagels, but after reading, I feel like I have superficial understanding of it.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief, fascinating and entertaining account of how and where bagels may have originated and how the biggest bagel baker in the United States ended up in Mattoon, Illinois of all places, thereby demonstrating the bagelization of America.

[Sarah Salisbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s not a ton to be said about a book about bagels except whether it was as delightful as a book about bagels should be, which it was. Perhaps I’d have more to say if I were in a more lighthearted mood, but as I’m not, I shall leave it at that.

[Norman Leventhal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Loved this, great history, much of it included my East coast history of the 60’s, buying bagels after a Saturday nite date.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice, little book with wealth of historical information about bagels. Great read.

[S C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute.

[Josh Ridgway · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting look at the history of the bagel and what it means to different cultures and people. A must read for fans of food history. I learned a lot!

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good concise history of the bagel that is slightly thrown off by a large portion of the book covering the interesting, but not entirely relevant, proceedings of Jewish New Yorker baker unions.

[Ignacio Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly superb book on the hidden background of a (now) commonplace staple with a poetic history and trajectory.

[Bob Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe, a bit more than I ever wanted to know about the history of a bagel. Almost like a doctoral dissertation about this subject.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually love "histories of the everyday". (Salt: A World History is my favorite) This one, however, never engaged me. I wish I could put my finger on what I did't like, but I can't. It should have been fascinating, given the bagel's development amongst Eastern European Jewry.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

All about the bagel, from olden times to the travails of the Lower East Side bakers to the triumph of the brothers Lender, pushers of the ubiquitous small, bland, mouth-feel inferior, frozen institutional imposter.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read for any bagel-lover. Interesting to learn how the bagel relates to significant European historical events (such as WWI and WWII), as well as how the bagel became an all-American food.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed more lox.

[Heather]

Boring. That's really all I can say. And I learned to blame Murray Lender for the cinnamon raisin bagel.

[Tracey]

Sho gave 3 stars

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book about the history & cooking of bagel!