In 1938 gymnastics instructor Carola Spitz escaped from Nazi Germany. In New York she turned into Carola Speads, revered teacher of mindfulness. She breathed with clients in her Central Park West studio until she was 97 years old. Now Christoph Ribbat combines her gripping biography with the histories of modern bodywork and breathing experiments. He illuminates the tension between self-help fads and 20th century catastrophes. Accessible and quirky,
Breathing in Manhattan
speaks to experts and non-experts alike: to readers of Jewish history, students of New York City, and to anyone attracted by – or skeptical of – the promises of mindfulness.