Manhattan's Lower East Side stands for Jewish experience in America. With the possible exception of African-Americans and Harlem, no ethnic group has been so thoroughly understood and imagined through a particular chunk of space. Despite the fact that most American Jews have never set foot there - and many come from families that did not immigrate through New York much less reside on Hester or Delancey Streets - the Lower East Side was the place where life pulsated, bread tasted better, relationships were richer, tradition thrived and passions flared. This was not always so. During the years now fondly recalled (1880-1930), the neighbourhood was only occasionally called the Lower East Side. Though largely populated by Jews from eastern Europe, it was not ethnically or even religiously homogenous. The tenements, grinding poverty, sweatshops and packs of roaming children were considered the stuff of social work, not nostalgia and romance. To learn when and why this dark warren of pushcart-lined streets became an icon, the author follows a wide trail of high and popular culture. She examines children's stories, novels, movies, museum exhibits, television shows, summer-camp re-enactmen