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Search - Toward a Better Life: America's New Immigrants in Their Own Words--from Ellis Island to the Present

Toward a Better Life America's New Immigrants in Their Own Wordsfrom Ellis Island to the Present
Author: Peter Morton Coan

Foreword by Barry Moreno, — Chief Historian and Librarian for Ellis Island and the new National Museum of ImmigrationPreface by Stephen A. Briganti, — President and Chief Executive Officer, Statue of Liberty?Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.Immigrants comprise nearly a quarter of the US population, a larger proportion than at any time since World War ... more »II. Of those, more than 10 percent are here illegally, and many more try to enter the country and fail. Recently, the body of a man from the Dominican Republic was found floating in a Long Island marina near Kennedy International Airport. He had fallen from the wheel well of a jet after stowing away.What motivates so many people to take such great risks to come to our shores?In this fascinating and richly illustrated oral history, author Peter Morton Coan has compiled the true stories of immigrants told in their own words. Toward a Better Life spans 120 years of the American immigrant experience in candid confessions told straight from the heart. They range from interviews with relatives of Annie Moore (Ellis Island's first immigrant) and the Von Trapp family (made famous by The Sound of Music) to the inspiring stories of Cesar Millan ("The Dog Whisperer"), master chef Jacques Pepin, and musicians Emilio and Gloria Estefan, as well as the dramatic tale of Carlos Escobar's harrowing trip north from Mexico in 1996 to create a better life for his family. Whether it's ordinary people doing extraordinary things or celebrities who chose America as their new home, Toward a Better Life offers a balanced, poignant, and often moving portrait of America's immigrants over more than a century.Coan has organized the book by decades so that readers can easily find the time period most relevant to their experience or that of family members. The first part covers the Ellis Island era, the second part America's new immigrants?from the closing of Ellis Island in 1955 to the present. Also included is a comprehensive appendix of statistics showing immigration by country and decade from 1890 to the present, a complete list of famous immigrants, and much more.This rewarding, engrossing volume documents the diverse mosaic of America in the words of the people from many lands, who for more than a century have made our country what it is today. It distills the larger, hot-topic issue of national immigration down to the personal level of the lives of those who actually lived it.

ISBN-13: 9781616143947
ISBN-10: 1616143940
Publication Date: 8/23/2011
Pages: 390
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Publisher: Prometheus Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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Search - Toward a Better Life: America's New Immigrants in Their Own Words--from Ellis Island to the Present

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