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.
