Immigration and American Diversity: A Social and Cultural History

This engaging textbook is a concise overview of a sweeping topic – American immigration. Immigration is central to the history of America: a "nation of immigrants" that is diverse by definition. Beginning with the first arrival of migrants from Asia, Africa, and Europe, and ending with a discussion of the United States at the turn of the twenty–first century, this book offers an unflinching analysis of the complex relationship between America′s national solidarity and ethnic diversity. The text introduces the main migrations of each era of American history, and examines the ensuing interaction between established citizens and new arrivals, and the formation of ethnic groups, regional cultures, and individual identities. The book describes how each are perceived "Americans," and how each most recent group of immigrants sparked the recurring debate over the concept of American nationality. Lively and straightforward, this valuable text shows both the optimistic and disparaging image of the United States as a "melting pot."

List of Figures and Tables. Preface and Acknowledgments. Introduction. Student Exercise: American Diversity – and Me; American Diversity – and You. 1. Creating America; Creating Americans. 2. Americans and Aliens, 1750–1835. 3. Emigrants and Regional Strife, 1820–1860. Student Exercise: Catholic Nuns Testify in Court after the Burning of the Charlestown Convent. 4. Redefining the Nation, 1850–1900. Student Exercise: Can a Negro be a Nativist?. 5. Immigrants in a Nativist America, 1890–1920. Student Exercise, Determining the Geographic Origins of Immigrants at Century′s Turn. 6. Migrants, Immigrants, and Scientific Racism, 1900–1945. 7. The Postwar USA: Nation of Immigrants or Multicultural Nation?. Student Exercise: Ethnicity, Authors, and their Books. 8. Today′s Immigrants; Tomorrow′s Nation. Student Exercise: This Week′s Headlines: An Oral Report on Immigration′s Impact on Local Communities. Conclusion. Notes. Index.

Donna R. Gabaccia is Charles H. Stone Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is the author of We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (1998) and Italy′s Many Diasporas (2000).

"An intelligent and readily accessible synthesis of much scholarship on immigration and ethnicity, Donna Gabaccia′s new book blends clearly written accounts with stimulating exercises for students. Authored by a leading immigration historian, Immigration and American Diversity covers its topics from their historical beginnings to ‘tomorrow′s nation.′ Werner Sollors, Harvard University <!––end––> "Gabaccia, a noted specialist in Sicilian and women′s immigration history, gives a well–informed, fresh and intelligently idiosyncratic, account of immigrants in North Americafrom the pre–Columbian era to the present day." History