Immigration Books

Product very well designed and clear to read and understand. Unfortunately the one person I wanted to research was not included. However, that does not detract from the fact that this book could be a very useful tool for anyone researching family who emigrated during this time. Could not fault the book.

In this work first issued in 1940, the largest, most varied, and least assimilating of white ethnic groups in the US is examined. This includes the nature of the German character and the complexity of its variants, set against the German immigrant experience in the US. The extent of contribution to US development is contrasted implicitly with the difficulties both in the old world and in the new in maintaining identity. Racism, intolerance, and hostility were visited on Germans in recurrent veins throughout US history, with Hawgood focusing on the post Napoleanic 19th century. Hawgood's study includes the critical role of language in preserving cultural integrity, particularly in the context of anti-German laws leveled throughout the states and territories throughout the century.

This is actually very interesting reading about an important, diffuse, varyingly cultured and anti-intellectual, forgotten-as-such minority.

"If America holds a collective portrait of the Polish immigrant landing at Ellis Island, exhausted, bewildered, clutching bundles and children, surrounded by queerly lettered trunks, what, in the popular imagination, do those trunks contain? The featherbed, embroidered linens, a treasured family photograph . . . a fistful of village soil . . . . Rarely, however, do we imagine a book among the carefully packed belongings . . . " (p. 15).
Popular stereotypes may envisage the Polish immigrant of the late 19th/early 20th century as an illiterate peasant who provided only brawn to the American Industrial Revolution. But the emigracja za chlebem also had a voracious appetite for reading. Karen Majewski, associate professor of Polish & East Central European Studies at Michigan's St. Mary's College, documents a lost page in immigrant history: the large book publishing industry that grew up in Polonian centers to serve the first and second generations of Polish immigrants.
The demand for books was great, evidenced by the number of titles that appeared. Writing their history is itself a challenge, because much of the primary source material has disappeared. Being in Polish, the books often didn't catch the attention of American libraries. Since book publishing was a sideline of the Polonian newspaper publishers, they kept costs down by printing on acidic paper that crumbled over time. Few of these books were sent to deposit collections like the Library of Congress. Few were copyrighted: some even couldn't be, because-as today-Polish "entrepreneurs" had no qualms about pirating books published elsewhere, calculating that an author in the old country was unlikely to fight for his intellectual property rights in Wisconsin.
Majewski devotes her book to a special niche of those writings: fiction published by Polonian authors for the Polonian market. She examines four different genres: crime and detective novels, sagas about immigration, short stories and novels containing social critiques, and romances. She also devotes an epilogue to Polish-language novels being published today by writers like Zofia Mierzyñska, recounting the lives and experiences of today's economic immigrants who overstay tourist visas and disappear into the underground economy.
The author advances a provocative thesis: that Polonian fiction was often a metaphor for intra-community debates about what it meant to be Polish in America. The emigracja za chlebem had come to America from a Poland that did not appear on anybody's maps. In many ways, the most open and public debate about Polish identity occurred not in Austrian-, Russian-, or Prussian-dominated Poland but in the "fourth partition," American Polonia. Majewski argues that many of the images of family, love, marriage, betrayal, and usurpation were also extended metaphors for what was taking place on the political level in Poland. As later under communism, Poles learned how to communicate effectively through a "'conspiracy of understanding'" invoking certain words, symbols, and associations. It was not mere coincidence that Pope John Paul II often spoke about the virtue of solidarity after the suppression of SolidarnoϾ. Majewski argues that the same phenomenon was operative in that early Polonian fiction.
Majewski's recovered a fascinating and forgotten page of American Polonian history. While not minimizing its scholarly value, it reads well and can be of benefit to general readers interested in matters Polish. Highly recommended.

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"The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism" is an excellent reappraisal of urban politics in the early part of the 20th century. Connolly provides an exhaustive analysis of voting patterns - sometimes on a block by block basis - throughout the city of Boston. Connolly's approach (as well as research) dramatically moves forward our knowledge of precinct behavior, as well as ethnic association with particular issues. What's best about Connolly's book is that he relies less on inference and assumption that many authors who tackle this material do. Connolly's argument is predicated upon empirical evidence, and that alone is a refreshing break from much modern political history. For a better understanding of the period before Connolly's book picks up, one should read both Stephan Thernstrom's "The Other Bostonians" and Oscar Handlin's "Boston's Immigrants." Gerard Gamm's "The Making of New Deal Democrats: Voter Realignment in Boston, 1920-1940" is an fine continuation after the period with which Connolly is concerned.

Ellis Island - the cause of such a diverse European-descended population in New York City - but the new wave of immigrants aren't entering America from any one place. "Twenty First Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America" states that this generation of immigrants are spreading all over the country, and not just in high density urban areas such as major cities like New York and Los Angeles. With the lack of Federal law, many states and local governments are taking immigration into their own hands as immigrants find their way to out of the way cities you wouldn't expect to find them in such as St. Paul, Minnesota. An examination of the issue as a whole, pulling no punches and completely weighing both sides of the debate, "Twenty First Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America" is highly recommended for community library collections on social issues.

This book is extremely good, with pages that will have you hanging on every word. It is about two children who are coming to America, from Ireland because of the famine, in search of their father. They had to leave their mother behind with the baby, and all they have to protect them it a "twist of gold"; a torc that has been in the family for years. From Ireland to California, there are plenty of mishaps and troubles, but also plenty of laughter and good parts. Although it is very tragic, and long, you won't put it down until it's done. I read this book when I was 11, and it has been my favourite ever since. I suggest this book if you want a good full book that will keep you reading for a while!

The Two Brothers New Children's Book Rockets Series to Prominence by J.B. McKinley

William Jaspersohn, Vermont author, has scored a 10 on whatever scale you choose to rate a children's book. His latest title, The Two Brothers, is a tale of immigration to Vermont and of reunion. It is an evocative and moving story that differs from the experience of so many who came to America, only in its surprise ending. The action moves along fast enough to capture and keep the attention of youngsters and the vocabulary does not talk down to anyone. Jaspersohn gives us clues to the casualness of immigration officials, sketches the weather and seasons of Vermont, and lets the reader glimpse the wonder of a new life in a new country - where hard work is still a constant, but anything can, and does, happen. As you read the book to your child, you will toss on the "rough and cruel" sea crossing; you can easily imagine the work on the Tucker Hill Farm - sugaring, plowing, cutting firewood and, finally fence building. It is this last activity in springtime, years after "Henry" immigrates, that brings us to the final happy meeting of brothers. But it is the unique format of The Family Heritage Series that tells us the two brothers actually lived and were the forebears of Vermont's Commissioner of Agriculture. The story is based on archives kept at the Vermont Folklife Center, in Middlebury. The idea for the series, which Jaspersohn's instant classic will undoubtedly catapult into importance in the world of children's literature, was first conceived about five years ago by Jane Beck, folklorist and director at the Folklife Center. She wanted to share the family stories collected and housed in Middlebury. "Family stories are tremendously important," she said. "Our best hope for the Family Heritage Series is that will not only bring to light some of the fascinating true stories that exist in families, but also serve as a catalyst for children to dig up - and value - their own family's stories." On the book's last page, children are urged to uncover family tales and are given easy, specific directions to become authors of their own family book. "It reminds us that everybody and every family has a story to tell," said Bill Jaspersohn. "The power of these kinds of stories is as great as the stories of Hollywood or the songs of...Britney Spears...they help all of us understand the American experience." The Two Brothers will be included on a soon to be published list of classic New England children's books compiled by Yankee Magazine. The book makes the top 40, with company such as Blueberries for Sal. "It's cool!" said Jaspersohn of making the list. The fact is, his book hadn't even officially been for sale by the time he made the list. "To be part of that kind of list is a big honor," admitted Jaspersohn. But what he likes most about his book is that "It's a form of giving power to kids." He believes including the last page of author and publisher instruction for kids is key. "We all have a hunger for the past." He believes we all instinctively feel the past holds lessons for us. But, the message is that books "don't drop out of the sky - they come from real people," said Jaspersohn. Actually, one could come from your child.

I'm a 5th grade American History teacher and I love to read stories about the founding of our country. This story weaves the discovery of America with the bonds of friendship formed by two teenage boys and how they overcame life's obstacles. A must read!

as an attorney practicing in an area of law unrelated to immigration, I needed to learn enought immigration law to intelligently discuss the subject with an expert in the field. This book did the job and then some. I highly recommended it.