Between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nearly forty million people immigrated to the United States. Poverty, widespread famine, and the California gold rush prompted many people to leave their home countries for America. Over time, however, the government tried to slow the flow of immigration with laws like the Johnson-Reed Act in 1924. Students will read accounts from immigrants about the decision to leave home, the journey to America, and life in the new world. Additionally, students will read about xenophobic responses to immigration from the descendants of colonists. Through primary sources, this book provides students with an in-depth understanding of immigration to the United States.

This volume describes the diverse peoples who came to the United States from 1820, when records began to be kept, to 1924, when the gates were nearly closed to immigrants. The reactions of Americans to the new arrivals, laws that were passed, and the experiences of those who lived through it are richly presented here.

Ilija Sutalo has given us a detailed and fascinating insight into Croatian settlers from the 1800s to the present, the likes of which has never before been attempted. Yet Croatians have been here for 150 years, and, by the 1930s, were well organised and conscious of their heritage. A people without whom Australia could not have developed and grown.