In recent years, as most visitors to suburban malls can attest, Sears has become the epitome of a bygone age in retail. In hindsight, it is ironic that Sears' beginnings show remarkable similarities to the rise of Amazon. Sears, Roebuck & Co. started out as a mail-order company in Chicago in 1886 before branching out into the department store business during the 1920s. The catalogs the company and its main competitor, Montgomery Ward, distributed across the country were a remarkable innovation that brought urban trends and fashions to rural America. Chicago, the hub of the nation's railroad network, was the ideal base for mail-order companies. Julius Rosenwald, the subject of this new biography by Hasia R. Diner, was not the founder of Sears, nor did he invent the famous catalog, but he was largely responsible for the company's massive expansion and diversification after the mid-1890s. The initial public offering in 1906 turned Rosenwald almost overnight from a well-to-do Chicago executive into one of the wealthiest Americans. He devoted much of his free time to philanthropy and is remembered in particular for his support of African Americans.

Rosenwald was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1862 as the son of Jewish immigrants from northern Germany. As did so many young Jewish businessmen during the second half of the nineteenth century, he started out in the clothing trade. He had some success but also could rely on the backing of modestly wealthy relatives. In 1895, Rosenwald joined Richard Sears as a partner together with his brother-in-law Aaron Nussbaum; both acquired the share of Alvah Roebuck, who left the business. Partnerships between Jewish and non-Jewish businessmen were relatively rare in this period, even in Chicago, a point that Diner does not discuss. A close acquaintance of Rosenwald was Henry Goldman, the cofounder of Goldman Sachs. He recommended an IPO to raise funds for building a giant plant on Chicago's West Side. Unlike cofounder Sears, who pushed for ambitious expansion schemes and even proposed a loyalty program, Rosenwald was a more cautious manager. As vice president, he oversaw a growth of annual sales from under $1 million in 1895 to over $50 million in 1907. After Sears retired in 1908, Rosenwald steered the huge and expanding business successfully through several crises. He famously opposed organized labor but provided social insurance and stock options to retain employees. Early on, Sears became known for its generous return policy. The company was able to undercut rivals because it manufactured many goods in its own factories.

This biography appears in the publisher's Jewish Lives series. Of the more than thirty biographies in this series, Rosenwald's is only the third about a business leader. Like the other figures—German Jewish industrialist, intellectual, and politician Walther Rathenau and the Warner brothers—Rosenwald was probably not included in this series because of his success as an innovative businessman. Diner sketches Rosenwald's upbringing and business career competently but devotes only a relatively short section of the study to it. The other chapters focus on Rosenwald's philanthropy. Without a doubt, in hindsight one of Rosenwald's greatest accomplishments is his somewhat belated recognition that the situation of African Americans was intolerable. In 1911, Rosenwald first met Booker T. Washington, whom he quickly befriended. Their friendship opened Rosenwald's eyes to the daily discrimination and exclusion African Americans experienced. The over five thousand schools across the South he helped to establish were one of his most famous projects. He did, however, only provide matching grants. Lack of support by white school board officials meant that local African American families had to raise half of the required amount on their own. Rosenwald supported many projects and efforts organized by African Americans, at a time when other major American philanthropists ignored this crucial cause.

Rosenwald received countless requests for support and evaluated most cases carefully. Unlike many other philanthropists, he emphatically refused to have his name attached to any institution or project—yet he also rejected anonymous donations. He felt that other Americans should know that Jews were making contributions to society at large. Rosenwald was a significant supporter of Chicago. In particular, he gave to institutions related to education and the arts, most importantly to the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry. Rosenwald funded many Jewish causes, including those whose agenda he did not necessarily share but recognized as deserving. Unlike other biographers of Rosenwald, Diner correctly traces his philanthropy to his serious commitment to Reform Judaism. Emil G. Hirsch, the rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation, to which the Rosenwald family belonged, was a major influence.

One minor but regrettable flaw in this study is the consistent misspelling of most German place names. Additional information provided about German towns and regions is frequently inaccurate. For instance, Bünde, the hometown of Rosenwald's father, is not located in the Ruhr valley; Rosenwald was not “of Bavarian origin”; and Bremerhaven is not located on the Baltic Sea (pp. 14, 110). More problematic is the author's decision to stress similarities between the discrimination and social isolation of African Americans in Rosenwald's hometown of Springfield during the 1870s and 1880s and the treatment of Jews in Imperial Germany at the same time. Diner overemphasizes the impact of anti-Semitic discrimination and downplays the economic opportunities for German Jews. In social and economic terms, Germany resembled the United States more than most other European countries because a comparatively large number of Jews could and did pursue remarkable rags-to-riches careers as innovative and successful entrepreneurs.

Overall this concise biography provides a well-written and accessible portrait of one of America's most remarkable philanthropists and businessmen.