Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America
Michael Kimmel
(W.W. Norton & Co., 2026)

Mattel. Hasbro. Lionel. Ideal. These 20th century American toy companies were all founded by first-generation Jewish Americans. The poor, often Yiddish-speaking, tenement-dwelling children of immigrants invented a world they never knew: an enchanted world, full of wild creatures and struggles between good and evil, with realms of fantasy and beauty. The first full-scale toy history of the United States, Playmakers conjures the imaginative, restless spirits who followed the promise of the American Dream to create childhood as we know it today.

This event is presented in partnership with Seaside Jewish Community.

About the Author
Michael Kimmel is a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and gender studies and founder of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University.

His great-grand-aunt and uncle invented the teddy bear and founded the Ideal Toy Corporation. Kimmel and his wife live in Brooklyn.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partner —  The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2026 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. 

Thanks to all our donors, especially our education and outreach funding partners: Carolyn & Aaron Nayer, Jen Mason & Clare Hancock, the Red Wagon Foundation, and Browseabout Books. HBF authors visit classrooms in Delaware, and HBF provides their books to schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Our Keynote event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex & Kent Counties and Groome Church; our Closing event is presented by the Delaware Community Foundation. The Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and production; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; and Historic Lewes for event promotion and author hospitality. Thanks also to the Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.