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● GENERAL INTEREST (in alphabetical
order by author name)
The Puerto Rican Americans (Immigrant Experience)
by Jerome Aliotta
Discusses the
history, culture, and religion of the Puerto Ricans, their place
in American society, and the problems they face as an ethnic
group in North America.
Liberty : the statue and the American
dream by Leslie Allen
Our Beckoning Borders: Illegal Immigration to America by
Bfrent K. Ashabranner
Through personal
accounts and interviews with illegal immigrants, border agents,
and public officials, Ashabranner addresses the reasons behind
this social phenomenon, the resulting problems, and the growing
concerns of the American public.
George Santayana (Hispanics of Achievement)
by David A. Carter
Santayana's famous quote: "Those who forget history are doomed
to repeat it." His life was one of enormous achievement, and
like so many of the American intellectuals of the twentieth
century, he was an immigrant who always felt a degree of
discomfort in American society. This uneasiness finally led him
to resign his position at Harvard and travel the world, writing
and adventuring.
The Mexican Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) by Julie Catalano
Following a brief survey of Mexico's past and an overview of its
relations with its neighbors to the north, Catalano traces the
growth of immigration of Mexicans to the U.S. from the late
1800s to the present. She touches on the problems of those who
came as agricultural laborers as well as the cultural
contributions and community and family characteristics of the
immigrants.
Ellis Island: An Illustrated History of
the Immigrant Experience By
Ivan Chermayeff
Hundreds
of photos from the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The
illustrations are complemented by an inviting narrative
detailing the experiences of immigrants in their own words.
Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own
Words By
Peter Morton Coan
The voices captured
in first-person narrations--bemused, feisty, poignant--express
enthusiasm for their new country, but most are unafraid to look
back. The book is divided into the geographical regions from
which the interviewees emigrated: the United Kingdom, Northern,
Eastern, and Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the Middle East.
Disappearance of the Outside: A
Manifesto for Escape
by Andrei Codrescu
This cultural-literary-social critique examines why, when a
society moves from a repressive system of government wrought
with censorship and oppression to a free state representing
unlimited possibilities, the art once created and treasured by
that population is taken for granted. Taking into account his
own exile from Stalinist Romania, as well as the plights of such
greats as Garcia Marquez, Breton, Dada, Kundera, and Milosz,
Codrescu issues a call for those living in a free society to
reach beyond a benign reality founded in technology and
commercialism by tapping into their imaginations and striving
for a better, evolutionary existence.
The Chinese Americans
By
William Daley
Discusses the
history, culture, and religion of the Chinese, factors
encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic
group in North America.
Coming to America (Second Edition) : A
History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life
By Roger Daniels
University of
Cincinnati history professor Daniels, in this substantial,
impressive social analysis, focuses on the diverse motives and
experiences of those who have settled in the U.S. since 1500. He
illustrates how, despite racial conflicts, varied ethnic
patterns and cultures, émigrés, including the controversial
recent influx of Hispanics and Cold War refugees, have adapted
and contributed to American society.
The Italian Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) By
J. Philip Di Franco
Against
background history, the authors relate why people emigrated,
their reception in the U.S., and how they have adapted.
The Polish Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) By Sean Dolan
Discusses
the history, culture, and religion of the Poles, actors
encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic
group in North America.
Immigrant Kids
By
Russell Freedman
The real life pictures of immigrant children in the
neighborhoods of New York during the late 1800's and early
1900's that appear on almost every page of the book should hold
the interest of even the most reluctant readers.
The German Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) By
Anne Galicich
Discusses the
history, culture, and religion of the Germans, factors
encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic
group in North America.
The Cuban Americans
By
Renee Gernand
A clear,
synoptic writing style clarifies key topics crucial to the
understanding of Cuban Americans. The Bay of Pigs invasion of
1962, for example, and the more recent Mariel boatlift operation
of 1982 are explained lucidly. In addition, the conflict of race
within the Cuban population itself is examined in the discussion
of the Mariel operation.
Nation of Strangers
By Vicki Goldberg
A Nation
of Strangers provides a historic overview of the past 155 years
of U.S. immigration using photographs, cartoons, broadsides, and
detailed annotations. Chinese miners during the California gold
rush, Chinese laborers building the Central Pacific Railroad,
patrols at the Mexican border, multitudes of new arrivals at
Ellis and Angel islands, Cuban rafters, and Haitian refugees are
portrayed, as well as the labor riots, poverty, and social
upheavals that attended the various migrations.
Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America,
1773-1986 Edited by Thomas Dublin
Dublin draws
from a wide range of already published classic immigrant
recollections, ranging from "The Diary of John Harrower" to "The
Nguyen Family: From Vietnam to Chicago." There is a balance
between accounts by men and women; two of the ten chapters are
written by the children of immigrants.
Japanese Americans
By
Harry Kitano
Covers
the importance of Buddhism and Confucianism to Japanese culture,
Japanese traditions, the history of Japanese immigration into
North America, wartime evacuation, and contributions to American
culture.
Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese
Immigrants and American Labor By
Peter Kwong
During the
Golden Adventure fiasco in 1993, a ship carrying illegal Chinese
immigrants was intercepted in New York harbor, generating a
fever of public attention on Chinese illegal immigration. Kwong
(Asian American studies, Hunter Coll.) explores a dark side of
American realities that create the conditions that encourage
human smuggling and modern slavery. At the heart of the issue
lies the ever-strong demand of American business for vulnerable,
docile, and unprotected labor.
The Korean Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) By
Brian Lehrer
Discusses the
history, culture, and religion of the Koreans; factors
encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic
group in North America.
The Russian Americans (The Peoples of
North America)
by
Paul R Magocsi
A
coherent survey of Russian and Soviet history provides the
background necessary for understanding the reasons for the waves
of immigrants from that part of the world.
The Greek Americans (Immigrant
Experience) by
Dimitris Monos
Discusses the
history, culture, and religion of the Greeks, factors
encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic
group in North America.
American Mosaic: The Immigrant
Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It (Pitts Series in
Social and Labor History)
by
Joan Morrison,
Charlotte Fox Zabusky
This collection of
oral histories strives to capture the drama and expanse of the
American immigrant experience. "American Mosaic" is the result
of five years of research and interviewing: it presents the
recollections of 140 immigrants from six continents and 50
countries. The interviewees, who settled all over the United
States, range in age from 17 to 101 and come from a variety of
social and economic backgrounds - urban and rural, rich and
poor, educated and illiterate. Most of the immigrants in this
book are the unknown voices of history. Among them are a few
well-known names - television commentator Alistair Cooke,
physicist Edward Teller, ballerina Alexandra Danilova, actress
Lynn Redgrave, baseball player Rennie Stennett, and others. Many
of the ordinary immigrants have extraordinary stories to tell:
Paul Maracek, who fled across the mountains from Czechoslovakia
with the family diamonds baked in muffins; Su-Chu Hadley, the
Chinese slave girl who found love in the arms of a gentle
American soldier; John Daroubian, the Armenian boy who watched
his family starve to death; Tanya Shimiewsky, the concentration
camp survivor who still dreams of finding her daughter alive in
Poland; Michael Kinney the Irish steelworker who thought he was
"down in Hell" on his first day at work; Vo Thi Tam, one of the
first Vietnamese "boat people" to arrive in America; and
Demetrius Paleologas, the Greek dishwasher who became a
millionaire. These stories of love, adventure, tragedy, and
triumph depict the human side of immigration and reveal the
ethnic heritage in the background of every American. An updated
introductory chapter gives an overview of immigration history, a
section on the legislation and a recapitulation of recent
trends. In his foreword, Oscar Handlin reflects on the book's
contribution to the understanding of the American immigrant
experience.
The Jewish Americans (The
Immigrant Experience)
by
Howard Muggamin
The
opening chapter briefly covers 5,000 years of Jewish history to
provide a context for understanding the waves of immigration to
America. A subject organization highlights the contributions of
many famous American Jewish people to such fields as law,
politics, finance, creative arts.
Border-Line Personalities : A New
Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass, and Cultural Shifting
by
Michelle Herrera Mulligan,
Robyn Moreno
Twenty
writers share their poignant and wickedly funny stories about
fighting with their mothers, struggling with speaking Spanish,
and dealing with the men who've done them wrong, among a myriad
of other topics. In the end, each essay encompasses a different
point of view, lending credence to the theory that no one can
label any one item, idea, or person more Latina than the other. Questions posed to Latinas of all ages in Border-Line
Personalities:
- Why do many of us often feel more American than Latina?
- How important is Spanish, really?
- Do we all really fit under one cultural umbrella?
- When thinking about having children, do we really have to
consider being stay-at-home moms as most of us were raised to
believe was law, or can Latinas even consider the possibility
of raising children while working?
- What do we do when we fall in love with someone (male or
female) outside our culture?
The Arab Americans (The Immigrant
Experience) by
Alixa
Naff
Discusses the history, culture, and religion of the Arabs,
factors encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an
ethnic group in North America.
Americanos: Latino Life in the United
States by
Edward James Olmos,
Lea Ybarra
Edited by one of the greatest activists and advocates for
Latinos all around the world, actor Edward James Olmos, "Americanos:
Latino Life in the United States" is a collection of beautiful
photographs and stories of Latinos throughout the United States.
From Mexican-Americans in California to Puerto Ricans in New
York City, Olmos and a team of other editors have produced a
book that perfectly and respectfully captures the beauty and
realities of Latinos all around.
The Czech Americans (Immigrant
Experience) by
Stephanie Saxon-Ford
European history and conditions leading to emigrations are
described; immigration patterns and experiences of Czechs in the
U. S. are detailed, as are the contributions of the new arrivals
in various fields.
Strangers from a Different Shore
: A History of Asian Americans by
Ronald
Takaki
Chinese immigrants
to the U.S. in the 19th century were transformed into outsiders
by racism and economic exploitation. This pattern, Takaki shows,
would be imposed on other Asian immigrant groups. Filipinos,
condescended to as "little brown brothers" by whites in the
Philippines, became targets of violent white backlash once they
emigrated to the U.S.; Indians were feared and persecuted as
labor competition; Japanese-Americans withdrew into
self-contained communities. Takaki, descended from a
Japanese-American family who labored on Hawaiian plantations,
and now an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley, has written
a vibrant, rich history that gives back a voice to countless
"invisible Americans."
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