Showing results by author "Marcus Eli Ravage" in All Categories

The sweat-shop was my liberty cradle... My first university, says Marcus Eli Ravage (1884-1965), a Romanian immigrant who changed the course of his life through education. By night, he attended lectures and theatre in New York; by day, he diligently sewed sleeves into shirts in a ghetto shop. Ravages 1917 autobiography narrates his journey from being an alien to becoming an American. At 16, he emigrated from Romania and worked for several years to save enough money to attend the University of Missouri, a culture shock at first. However, he eventually embraced the bigger and freer world beyond ...

“The sweat-shop was for me the cradle of liberty. . . It was my first university.” Attending lectures and the New York theatre at night; by day sewing sleeves into shirts in a ghetto shop, Marcus Eli Ravage (1884-1965) began his transformation from “alien” to American. His 1917 autobiography is a paean to the transformative power of education. Ravage emigrated from Rumania in 1900, at the age of 16. After working for several years as a “sleever” to save money, he enrolls in the University of Missouri (the least expensive school he can find), where culture shock overwhelms him at ...