Looking Back: The American Dream Through Immigrant Eyes, 1907-1918

by Marie Jastrow, Robert Jastrow (Introduction)

Richly illustrated with photographs spanning the period from the turn of the century to the close of the Great War, this memoir recalls the Jastrow family's early years in America.

Genres: Nonfiction

202 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1986

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of wonderful sepia colored pictures of the immigrants coming to Ellis Island, living in New York and later of soldiers returning from World War One.

It is an autobiographical journey of a young Serbian girl from old Serbia to New York from 1900 to 1918. The print is larger than usual so that was restful to the eyes (just what I needed). I liked her telling of ways to survive with little money and some of her mother's tricks were the same as my mother's. Like putting cardboard in shoes when the holes had warmed through. I ended up coming her life with mine even though I grew up in Indianapolis and when I was her age, it was in the 1950s. Back then, my father took the trolley and later the bus to med school so we saved the pennies for transportation. Her father got to work via the elevated trains and they saved pennies for that too. I was surrounded by new immigrants from different countries right after World War II and she grew up with Serbian, German and other immigrants. Her father's version of the American dream was that we are all equal,if we want to wear a hat, that's OK because you don't have to be rich to wear a hat in America.

I throughly enjoyed this trip back into time and place.
I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the immigrant experience.

[Carol Mann Agency]

Richly illustrated with photographs spanning the period from the turn of the century to the close of the Great War, this memoir recalls the Jastrow family's early years in America.