Irving Berlin: The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing

After a pogrom destroyed his village, Irving Berlin fled Tsarist Russia and arrived in the United States as a refugee. He grew up on New York City’s Lower East Side, where jazz and blues rhythms influenced his songwriting. His life included homelessness, and he later wrote songs including “God Bless America.” The book moves from displacement and city childhood into his songwriting career, with an author’s note and timeline.