Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History

Major Problems in American History

by Jon Gjerde (Editor)

This unique volume explores such themes as the political and economic forces that cause immigration; the alienation and uprootedness that often follow relocation; and the difficult questions of citizenship and assimilation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

486 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 1998

About the author

Jon Gjerde (February 25, 1953 – October 26, 2008) was an American historian and the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and American Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gjerde's research concerned European immigration to the Midwestern United States and European immigrants in the midwest. Among other accolades, Gjerde won three Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book awards for his writings on immigration and agricultural history. He was most commonly associated with his two prizewinning books, From Peasants to Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle West (1989) and The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917 (1997).

Reviews

[Lauren Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Gjerde compiles documents pertaining to immigration to the United States dating back to the 17th century. He separates them by time period, providing his own insight into each with a brief introduction to each chapter. The documents - written by immigrants, Americans, politicians, and lawmakers among others - provide honest looks at how people saw immigration. Opinions range all over the spectrum; it's incredibly comprehensive and worth a read. I wish more history could have been provided by Gjerde, but aside from that it was a great book.