Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta

This encyclopedia contains 50 thorough profiles of the most numerically significant immigrant groups now making their homes in the United States, telling the story of our newest immigrants and introducing them to their fellow Americans. One of the main reasons the United States has evolved so quickly and radically in the last 100 years is the large number of ethnically diverse immigrants that have become part of its population. People from every area of the world have come to America in an effort to realize their dreams of more opportunity and better lives, either for themselves or for their children. This book provides a fascinating picture of the lives of immigrants from 50 countries who have contributed substantially to the diversity of the United States, exploring all aspects of the immigrants' lives in the old world as well as the new. Each essay explains why these people have come to the United States, how they have adjusted to and integrated into American society, and what portends for their future. Accounts of the experiences of the second generation and the effects of relations between the United States and the sending country round out these unusually rich and demographically detailed portraits.

Fiorello La Guardia was an ambitious man who wanted great success for himself—but he also wanted to advocate on behalf of the poor and forgotten. Through hard work and perseverance he managed to achieve both. This work examines the life of the man who not only became one of New York’s greatest and most renowned mayors, but who brought about some of the most important changes in the history of the city. This thoroughly revised second edition of Fiorello La Guardia: Ethnicity, Reform, and Urban Development looks at the many events of the popular mayor’s life—his early beginnings as a politician, the events surrounding his life and city, his multiple terms as New York City’s Mayor, his personal and professional disappointments, and his ultimate place in history. It also examines the broader subject of cities during times of stress, the ability of mayors to enhance urban life, and the origins of federal aid to cities. Connects the New York and urban story to that of the nation and to the subfields of Progressivism, the Depression, the New Deal, and World War II Contains 16 new images—of La Guardia, his contemporaries, and city shots—spaced throughout the text Offers a timeline of principal dates in La Guardia’s life keyed to significant events in the city’s, state’s, and nation’s history Includes key terms and study questions for each chapter Features a completely updated bibliographical essay Comprehensive, yet highly accessible, Fiorello La Guardia: Ethnicity, Reform, and Urban Development, Second Edition makes ideal supplementary reading for survey courses in the history of New York or New York City as well as for general American History courses.

Originally published in 1978. Millions of immigrants seeking a better life came to New York City in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ronald H. Bayor's study details how the relative tranquility among the city's four major ethnic groups was disturbed by economic depression, political divisions arising out of ties with the Old Country, and factional strife stirred up by local politicians seeking ethnic votes. Also evaluated are the effects of such emotional and political issues such as Nazism and Fascism upon the allegiances of Germans and Italians; the rift in the ethnic community caused by the communist scare; and the influence of such figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Father Charles Coughlin, and Fiorello La Guardia.

A look at the process of entering America a hundred years ago—from both an institutional and a human perspective. Outstanding Academic Title, Choice America is famously known as a nation of immigrants. Millions of Europeans journeyed to the United States in the peak years of 1892–1924, and Ellis Island, New York, is where the great majority landed. Ellis Island opened in 1892 with the goal of placing immigration under the control of the federal government and systematizing the entry process. Encountering Ellis Island introduces readers to the ways in which the principal nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American portal for Europeans worked in practice, with some comparison to Angel Island, the main entry point for Asian immigrants. What happened along the journey? How did the processing of so many people work? What were the reactions of the newly arrived to the process (and threats) of inspection, delays, hospitalization, detention, and deportation? How did immigration officials attempt to protect the country from diseased or “unfit” newcomers, and how did these definitions take shape and change? What happened to people who failed screening? And how, at the journey's end, did immigrants respond to admission to their new homeland? Ronald H. Bayor, a senior scholar in immigrant and urban studies, gives voice to both immigrants and Island workers to offer perspectives on the human experience and institutional imperatives associated with the arrival experience. Drawing on firsthand accounts from, and interviews with, immigrants, doctors, inspectors, aid workers, and interpreters, Bayor paints a vivid and sometimes troubling portrait of the immigration process. In reality, Ellis Island had many liabilities as well as assets. Corruption was rife. Immigrants with medical issues occasionally faced a hostile staff. Some families, on the other hand, reunited in great joy and found relief at their journey's end. Encountering Ellis Island lays bare the profound and sometimes-victorious story of people chasing the American Dream: leaving everything behind, facing a new language and a new culture, and starting a new American life.