9 results for "American History"

Ethnic Americans: a history of immigration

Dinnerstein, Leonard
For more than three decades, Ethnic Americans has been hailed as a classic history of immigration to America. Leonard Dinnerstein and David M. Reimers begin with a brief overview of immigration during the colonial and early national eras (1492 to the 1820s), focusing primarily on the arrival of English Protestants, while at the same time stressing the diversity brought by Dutch, French, Spanish, and other small groups, including "free people of color" from the Caribbean. Next they follow large-scale European immigration from 1830 to the 1880s. Catholicism became a major force in America during this period, with immigrants—five million in the 1880s alone—creating a new mosaic in every state of the Union. This section also touches on the arrival, beginning in 1848, of Chinese immigrants and other groups who hoped to find gold and get rich. Subsequent chapters address eastern and southern European immigration from 1890 to 1940; newcomers from the Western Hemisphere and Asia who arrived from 1840 to 1940; immigration restriction from 1875 to World War II; and the postwar arrival and experiences of Asian, Mexican, Hungarian, and Cuban refugees. Taking the past fifteen years into account, the fifth edition of Ethnic Americans considers recent influxes of Asians and Hispanics, especially the surge in the Mexican population, and includes expanded coverage of nativist sentiment in American politics and thought. --
Columbia University Press 2009 236 pages

"They take our jobs!": and 20 other myths about immigration

Chomsky, Aviva
"Revised and expanded edition of the groundbreaking book which demystifies twenty-one of the most widespread myths and beliefs about immigrants and immigrations. In "They Take Our Jobs!" Aviva Chomsky challenges the underlying assumptions that fuel misinformed claims about immigrants, radically altering our notions of citizenship, discrimination, and U.S. history. Since it was first published, many of the same myths about immigration such as "immigrants take American jobs," " immigrants don't pay taxes," and "immigrants increase crime" continue to be perpetuated and used to promote aggressive anti-immigration policies. In a new introduction, Chomsky reflects on the events of the past ten years. She analyzes declining Mexican immigration patterns, illuminates Mexico's little-known Southern Border Program, and assesses Obama's complicated legacy as "deporter-in-chief" which, Chomsky argues, inadvertently laid the groundwork for Trump's anti-immigrant racism"--
Beacon Press 2018-04-24 243 pages

The golden land: the story of Jewish migration to America : experience the achievements of American Jews through removable documents and artifacts

Telushkin, Joseph
Using an interactive format that includes removable letters, documents, and personal effects, this visual history of the Jews in America follows the successive waves of Jewish immigration to the United States, from the eighteenth century to the present day. 30,000 first printing. Traditions Book Club Main.
Harmony Books 2002 31 pages

Fresh blood: the new American immigrants

Ungar, Sanford J.
Drawing on hundreds of richly textured interviews conducted from one end of the country to the other, veteran journalist Sanford J. Ungar documents the real-life struggles and triumphs of America's newest immigrants. He finds that the self-chosen who arrive every day, most of them legally, still enrich our national character and experience and make invaluable political, economic, social, cultural, and even gastronomic contributions. "First-class journalism, a book scholars will use decades from now to find out what it 'felt like' to be an immigrant in the 90s. I do not know of a better description and analysis of contemporary immigration." -- Roger Daniels, author of Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life "An excellent overview of contemporary immigration issues set within the context of developments in the past fifty years. Ungar makes a strong case for the contributions of recent immigrants and for maintaining a relatively open door in the face of sometimes shrill opposition." -- Thomas Dublin, editor of Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America "Exactly the right book at the right time. [Ungar] looks at the national controversy over immigration policy with a clear eye, producing a history and a convincing argument why this is no time to reverse a liberal welcome to newcomers that has always--in good times and bad--made this a better and more prosperous democracy." -- Ben H. Bagdikian, author of Double Vision
University of Illinois Press 1998 411 pages

The Italians of New York

Molinari, Maurizio
An overview of generations of Italians in the Big Apple, weaving together numerous stories from different epochs and different backgrounds. "If you want to learn something about Italian creativity, come to New York. Here, you will find the pride of flying the Italian colors at the Fifth Avenue Columbus Day Parade, the American patriotism of those who perished at Ground Zero, the courage of firefighters and marines on the frontline of the war against terrorism, the babel of dialects at the Arthur Avenue market, portrayals of social change in the writings of Gay Talese, stories of successful business ventures on the TV shows of Maria Bartiromo and Charles Gasparino, political passion in the battles of Mario Cuomo and Rudy Giuliani, creative imagination in the works of Gaetano Pesce, Renzo Piano and Matteo Pericoli, and provocation in the attire of Lady Gaga... The Midtown top managers, whoarrived in the past twenty years, operate in the XXI century, while on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood the panelle are still prepared according to the Sicilian recipes transmitted from one generation to the next." (From the "Introduction")
Vellum 2012 253 pages

Opening doors: the unlikely alliance between the Irish and the Jews in America

Diner, Hasia R.
"The extraordinary untold story of how Irish and Jewish immigrants worked together to secure legitimacy in America. Popular belief holds that the various ethnic groups that emigrated to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century regarded one another with open hostility, fiercely competing for limited resources and even coming to blows in the crowded neighborhoods of major cities. One of the most enduring stereotypes is that of rabidly anti-Semitic Irish Catholics, like Father Charles Coughlin of Boston and the sensationalized Gangs of New York trope of Irish street thugs attacking defenseless Jewish immigrants. In Opening Doors, Hasia Diner, one of the world's preeminent historians of immigration, tells a very different story; far from confrontational, the prevailing relationships between Jewish and Irish Americans were overwhelmingly cooperative, and the two groups were dependent upon one another to secure stable and upwardly mobile lives in their new home. The Irish had emigrated to American cities en masse a generation before the first major wave of Jewish immigrants arrived, and had already entrenched themselves in positions of influence in urban governments, public education, and the labor movement. Jewish newcomers recognized the value of aligning themselves with another group of religious outsiders who were able to stand up and demand rights and respect despite widespread discrimination from the Protestant establishment, and the Irish realized that they could protect their political influence by mentoring their new neighbors in the intricacies of American life. Opening Doors draws from a deep well of historical sources to show how Irish and Jewish Americans became steadfast allies in classrooms, picket lines, and political machines, and ultimately helped one another become key power players in shaping America's future. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism and xenophobia today, this informative and accessible work offers an inspiring look at a time when two very different groups were able to find common ground and work together to overcome bigotry, gain representation, and move the country in a more inclusive direction"--
St. Martin's Press 2024 277 pages

New York: an illustrated history of the people

Schoener, Allon
According to the 1990 census, New York, for the first time in a century, had more foreign-born inhabitants than native-born residents. A city of continual immigration, New York's people have been documented by major artists and photographers from the earliest European settlers to the present. In this majestic illustrated history, with over 500 prints, paintings, and photographs, many never before published, we see the arrival of the first wave of Dutch and Anglo-Saxon settlers in the seventeenth century. We progress through Irish and German immigrations in the mid-nineteenth century, the immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of vast numbers of Italians and Eastern European Jews as well as Greeks and Slavs, followed by African Americans moving from the South after World War I. Finally, as the twentieth century comes to a close, Caribbeans, Latinos, Africans, and Asians have become the dominant new New Yorkers. As he did with Harlem on My Mind, The Lower East Side, American Jewish Album, and The Italian Americans, Allon Schoener has brought together wonderful images as well as documentary accounts from diaries, letters, news articles, and other sources, giving us the rich history and texture of this great city.
W.W. Norton & Co 1998 416 pages

The politics and public culture of American Jews

Goren, Arthur A.
These strikingly lucid and accessible essays, ranging over nearly a century of Jewish communal life, examine the ways in which immigrant Jews grappled with issues of group survival in an open and accepting American society. Ten case studies focus on Jewish strategies for maintaining a collective identity while participating fully in American society and public life. Readers will find that these essays provide a fresh, provocative, and compelling look at the fundamental question facing American Jewry at the end of the 20th century, as at its start: how to assure Jewish survival in the benign conditions of American freedom.
Indiana University Press 1999 274 pages