With a timely new chapter on immigration in the current age of globalization, a new Preface, and new appendixes with the most recent statistics, this revised edition is an engrossing study of immigration to the United States from the colonial era to the present.

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This year marks the 350th anniversary of the first Jewish settlement in America. From Haven to Home celebrates this important occasion by bringing together an eminent group of Judaic scholars who take stock of American Jewish life, from the arrival of the first small group in Manhattan in 1654 to the present. The contributors examine a wide range of topics, including the early history of the American Jewish community and the various significant phases of Jewish immigration, which saw the initial group of twenty-three burgeon into a thriving community of several million by the early twentieth century. Also addressed is the role of Jews in the Civil War and in World War II, anti-Semitism in America, the daily life and struggles of American Jewish women, and American Jews and politics. The essays are amply illustrated with items from the collection of the Library of Congress's Hebraic Section, among them the first Hebrew bible printed in America and the first Yiddish American cookbook, as well as selections of photographs, prints, diaries, maps, and sheet music. Central to the Jewish experience in America is that country's commitment to ideals of freedom, opportunity, religious liberty, equality, and pluralism. The continuity of the faith, in fact, depends on it. From Haven to Homethe story of Jews in Americais therefore also the story of America and American ideals. 100 color illustrations.

An updated, penetrating, and balanced analysis of one of the most contentious issues in America today, offering a historically informed portrait of immigration. Americans have come from every corner of the globe, and they have been brought together by a variety of historical processes--conquest, colonialism, the slave trade, territorial acquisition, and voluntary immigration. In this Very Short Introduction, historian David A. Gerber captures the histories of dozens of American ethnic groups over more than two centuries and reveals how American life has been formed in significant ways by immigration. He discusses the relationships between race and ethnicity in the life of these groups and in the formation of American society, as well as explaining how immigration policy and legislation have helped to form those relationships. Moreover, by highlighting the parallels that contemporary patterns of immigration and resettlement share with those of the past - which Americans now generally regard as having had positive outcomes - the book offers an optimistic portrait of current immigration that is at odds with much present-day opinion. Newly updated, this book speaks directly to the ongoing fears of immigration that have fueled the debate about both illegal immigration and the need for stronger immigration laws and a border wall.

This collection focuses on a variety of important themes in the American Jewish and Judaic experience. It opens with essays on early Jewish settlers (1654-1820), the expansion of Jewish life in America (1820-1901), the great wave of eastern European Jewish immigrants (1880-1924), the character of American Judaism between the two world wars, American Jewish life from the end of World War II to the Six-Day War, and the growth of Jews' influence and affluence. The second half of the volume includes essays on Orthodox Jews, the history of Jewish education in America, the rise of Jewish social clubs at the turn of the century, the history of southern and western Jewry, Jewish responses to Nazism and the Holocaust, feminism's confrontation with Judaism, and the eternal question of what defines American Jewish culture. Original and elegantly crafted, The Columbia History of Jews and Judaism in America not only introduces the student to a thrilling history, but also provides the scholar with new perspectives and insights.

Reagan’s 1986 immigration reform law offered a composite of contradictory measures: sanctions curtailed employment of undocumented workers while other programs enhanced labor supply. Immigration law today continues the theme of contradictions and unmet goals. But hasn’t it always been so? Examining a century of U.S. immigration laws, from the nation’s early stages of industrialization to enactment of the quota system, Kitty Calavita explores the hypocrisy, subtext, and racism permeating an unrelenting influx of European labor. Now in its second edition, this groundbreaking book offers a materialist theory of the state to explain the zigzagging policies that alternately encouraged and ostensibly were meant to control the influx. The author adds a 2020 Preface to place the historical record into modern relief, even in the age of presidential characterization of immigrants as violent criminals and terrorists. Writing in a new Foreword, Susan Bibler Coutin is “struck by the relevance of Calavita’s analysis to current debates over immigration policy,” as this social history “reveals alternatives to the present moment: over much of U.S. history, government officials actively recruited immigrants, even when segments of the public sought restrictions.” The aim was not “social justice or human rights, but rather to fuel economic expansion, depress wages, and counter unionization.” The book is commended to a wide audience: “The theoretical discussion is accessible to new students as well as established scholars, and the rich documentary record sheds light on how current dynamics were set in motion.” “Calavita lucidly and brilliantly clarifies the linkages among economic structure, ideology, and law making. She effectively depicts the history of U.S. immigration legislation as a series of attempted resolutions to recurring dilemmas rooted in the fiscal and legitimation crises facing the state.” — Marjorie Zatz, Vice Provost, UC-Merced, in International Migration Review (1986)