Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing: A

Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing: A Library of America Special Publication

Immigration is the essential American story. From London or Lvov, Bombay or Beijing, Dublin or Dusseldorf, people have come to America to remake themselves, their lives, and their identities. Despite political obstacles, popular indifference, or hostility, they put down roots here, and their social, cultural, and entrepreneurial energies helped forge the open and diverse society we live in. The history of American immigration has often been told by those already here.Â Becoming AmericansÂ tells this epic story from the inside, gathering for the first time over 400 years of writingâ€”from seventeenth-century Jamestown to contemporary Brooklyn and Los Angelesâ€”by first-generation immigrants about the immigrant experience. In sum, over eighty writers create a vivid, passionate, and revealing firsthand account of the challenges and aspirations that define our dynamic multicultural society.

In nearly 100 selectionsâ€”poems, stories, novel excerpts, travel pieces, diary entries, memoirs, and lettersâ€”Becoming AmericansÂ presents the full range of the experience of coming to America: the reasons for departure, the journey itself, the shock and spectacle of first arrival, the passionate ambivalence toward the old country and the old life, and above all the struggle with the complexities of America. Arranged in chronological order by date of arrival, this unprecedented collection presents a history of the United States that is both familiar and surprisingly new, as seen through the fresh eyes and words of newcomers from more than forty different countries.
Country USA
Brand Stavans, Ilan (EDT)
Manufacturer Library of America
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9781598530513
ReleaseDate 2009-10-15
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781598530513

Country	USA
Brand	Stavans, Ilan (EDT)
Manufacturer	Library of America
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9781598530513
ReleaseDate	2009-10-15
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781598530513

Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing: A Library of America Special Publication

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