Customer Reviews

The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, millions of immigrants came to America, fleeing poverty, pogroms, and the draft. When the U.S. entered World War I, thousands of immigrant men enlisted or were drafted to serve in the military, returning to Europe in similar ocean liners to the ones that had brought them. David Laskin sees this military service as a critical step in the Americanization of the immigrants -- even though they returned to often virulent xenophobia during the Red Scare.

As he did in _The Children's Blizzard_, Laskin makes vivid a sweeping story by focusing on a small number of individuals (in this case, 12 men). He begins with the immigrants' lives in Europe -- the Italian boy in a rocky farm, the Norwegian man who left the farm to work on a fishing boat, the Jewish scrap hauler in the Russian pale. And then he follows them on their journeys to America in the fetid barracks of steerage. On they go to their new homes: the copper mines in Butte, a blanket factory in New England, the Lower East Side. A couple of them enlisted long before World War I; one was part of Pershing's force chasing Pancho Villa (earlier he'd been a mercenary selling arms to Pancho Villa).

And then there's the military. The transition from civilian life was difficult. How could the Army train a crowd of recruits who spoke dozens of languages and were often malnourished and in terrible shape? How could the immigrants get past the ethnic slurs flung at them by the native-born soldiers? And what sort of soldiers would these immigrants make?

Eventually, they shipped out, fully trained or not, and Laskin takes us to the trenches and the shattered forests of the Great War. Using the immigrants' own words -- from letters home, diaries, and, in a couple of cases, interviews (he met one veteran who was 107!) -- and accounts from others who were in the same battles, he gives detailed accounts of the horrors and the heroism of war.

This isn't a war book just for military history buffs. Recommended for those interested in the immigrant experience and U.S. history generally.

THE LONG WAY HOME by David Laskin is 386 pages long, printed on off-white paper, with 16 pages of glossy black and white photos. The photos show immigrants on ocean liners, crowded street scenes in New York City, and some of the actual characters of this book, e.g., Matej Kocak (Slovak), Tommaso Ottaviano (Italian), Meyer Epstein (Russian Jew from the Pale), Epifanio Affatato (Italian), Max Chieminski (Polish), and others. In this book, which concerns WWI, the author took the creative approach towards history, of providing standard history text dotted with anecdotes relating to twelve immigrants who later became U.S. soldiers. To view the big picture, these 12 immigrants left Europe to escape the draft, but were drafted into the U.S. military and returned to Europe.

THE PASSAGE. The book provides a context for Meyer Epstein, one of the 12 characters of the book. A region of Russia called "the Pale" was where 2 million Jews left between 1881-1914, where there was a tradition called tzedakah where poor Jews took care of poorer Jews. Meyer was from the Pale. An Italian, Rocco Pierro, left Italy in 1890 to put up telephone poles in America. He commuted home to Italy every year to make babies (pages 8-13). In Poland, "word has spread that in America wages were 8 times higher than in Poland. So what if they had to dig coal out of the hills or work 12 hours a day next to a blast furnace." (page 18). After disclosing fun facts about the motherland, the author details the passage. We learn that ships for immigrants had automatic flushing toilets, because it was expected that the immigrants were too ignorant to know what to do with a toilet handle (p. 32). We learn about eye exams where doctors used a buttonhook to lift up eyelids to seek diseased eyes. Page 51 provides an inspiring story of how Meyer Epstein became a plumber in New York. We learn of Peter Thompson, an Irish immigrant working a Montana copper mine: "He was making $3.50 a day now, and there was talk that the war would soon drive wages even higher." (page 87)

OUTBREAK. Then the book discloses the outbreak of WWI. Pages 79-82 disclose the chain reaction leading to WWI, Russia taking Konigsberg, and Germany striking back. We learn that the Allies were Russia, Britain, and France, and that the enemy was Germany and Austria, and that before WWI, Jews were barred from Russian universities but welcomed in German universities (p. 94). We learn that Italy was in limbo, and that on April 26, 1915, Italy joined England and France in the London pact. We learn of the Zimmermann telegram, which played a pivotal role in persuading the U.S. to join WWI (p. 118-121).

THE DRAFT. The book takes a detour to Mexico, to narrate the adventures of Jewish immigrant Sam Dreben who hobnobbed with Pancho Villa (p. 73-78, 108-111), and who then worked for General J.J. Pershing. We learn that, in response to the Civil War draft, there were riots, but that in the WWI draft, the only fighting involved, "two Italian men from the Bronx who tried to push their way to the head of the line so they could be first to register." (p. 125) We learn that the main trouble-makers in the U.S. were the Irish, who found it repugnant that they would be fighting on the same side as the English. We learn that the Poles were the most pro-war immigrants, but the fact that Germany had captured part of Poland (creating the notion that these Poles were really Germans) caused a legal glitch that prevented some Polish immigrants from registering for the U.S. draft (p. 128-129).

ENGLISH LESSONS. Then, the book turns towards recruitment and training. At Camp Gordon, 3/4ths of the recruits did not speak English. Page 141 discloses the U.S. military's solution to the problem of immigrant recruits who couldn't speak English -- courses in English. The Camp Gordon plan worked so well, that it was used at 15 army camps in the U.S. We learn that in the 77th Division, also called the Times Square Division, the men spoke 43 different languages. We learn that the 7th Regiment was called the Silk Stocking Regiment because its members were sons of millionaires. We learn that U.S. recruits were required to sniff chlorine gas and tear gas so that they could recognize it on the battlefield (p. 152). An amusing anecdote is provided about Tony Pierro, who trained at Camp Gordon, and who wound up in France, but was unable to command horses. Eventually, after trying commands in English and in Italian, he acquired lessons in French, and was then able to command the horses in French (p. 232).

CONCLUSION. This book is ideal for folks who wonder about the sources and manifestations of ethnic prejudices. The book will also be of interest to those with a general curiosity of career transitions, that is, how twelve unrelated immigrants got from point A to point B, in terms of geography and occupation. The reading level of the book is suitable for people ages twelve and up. The author is to be commended for sticking to the topic at hand. There is no journalistic fluff in this focused book. There are no digressions to off-point topics. Hopefully, the author will use the same technique (following the lives of 12 unrelated people) to write another book about U.S. history.

At the turn of the century, a flood of Europeans crammed themselves cheek to steerage class jowl onto anything that would float them across the Atlantic to the Promised Land. And having arrived here, they did what immigrants always do: Looked at one another with distrust and dislike...and from a distance. They set up enclaves that mirrored the Old Country with no "foreigners" allowed. Polish neighborhoods had their White Eagle markets and Doms Narodovy, Italians nibbled sfogliatelle at cafes just like those on the Via Vittorio Emanuele, and Jew lived with Jew. So how did we get to be Americans?

Propinquity, for the most part, and the gradual erosion of old country customs and mores. But World War I speeded up the process. Almost every family had someone making that reverse journey back Over There to fight the Kaiser. The military was then, as it is now, a great leveler. And war is a great distraction. Who has time to keep up neighborhood hostilities or wonder if you were born on the Buda or Pest side of the river when there's a guy in a pointy helmet heaving mustard gas at you.

David Laskin uses the experiences of 12 men -- Italians, Poles, Slovaks, Jews, Irishmen and Scandinavian -- to show us how immigrants go from "them" to "us," milestone by milestone.

The first milestone is the voyage to America. Laskin gives us such a in depth look at the crossing, full of interesting trivia, it gets the book off to a great start. Next we look on as they fan out across the country to find work digging for coal, building railroads, doing whatever backbreaking menial job they could.

As each chapter unfolds, we witness a gradual Americanization, but the process is painfully slow. The immigrants still identify more with the abandoned homeland, and Americans of established provenance don't exactly welcome them into the Yankee Brotherhood. But the boys are about to get a fateful tap on the shoulder from Uncle Sam that will change everything.

The curtain goes up on WWI and our guys get their invitations in the mail. Many immigrant draftees ended up at Camp Gordon, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia where the Army collected non-English speaking recruits and subjected them to English language immersion along with their basic military training. The so-called Gordon Plan was essential to building an army. Almost 75% of those recruited during WWI did not speak English as a first language!

Each chapter gives us more intersting detail and trivia (scattered like little minty chips in good chocolate ice cream...they make something that was already good superb). We learn that the Times Square Division (the 77th) had a staggering 43 different languages heard around the mess tables. At the opposite end of the social spectrum, one group of soldiers had hobnobbed together before donning their uniforms. Scions of America's richest families who knew one another from boarding school, debutante balls, family camps in the Adirondacks and Grand Tours of Europe all belonged to the 7th Division. Or what the rest of the army called The Silk Stocking Regiment.

Training over, our boys are deployed, and we follow them to the battlefields of the War to End All Wars. I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable about military history to comment on whether or not author Laskin dots every i or crosses every t in terms of getting the battles, the dates and the places right, or if he gets the names right when he mentions who led what and where, but in terms of reducing war to a human scale and bringing to life the experiences of some poor schmuck kid mired down and miserable in a muddy trench, Laskin delivers.

Finally, we have The Return to America as Americans. But here is why we've remained such a fascinating and diverse culture: Yes, they come home about as assimilated as you can get, but at the same time, they don't go all Tabula Rasa on us. They became them AND us, joining the Sons of Italy and the American Legion. So we really aren't E Pluribus Unum, but more E Pluribus Unim-ish. Original recipe and extra crispy, all at the same time.

"The Long Way Home" is an amazing narrative and a touching one. Anyone whose forebears passed through Ellis Island, or who is game for a different and compelling take on the military experience may want to take a look at it.

NOTE: What used to be Camp Gordon is now the DeKalb Peachtree Airport. Fort Gordon, an active military base located near Augusta, is often confused with Camp Gordon, as is the Camp Gordon Johnston Museum in Carrabelle, Florida. The latter site commemorates the ambphibious soldiers who trained there during WWII. Of the original Camp Gordon, no trace remains. No museum commemorates it or the hundreds of thousands of men who walked in without even a language in common and marched out American soldiers.

Me, I don't like glorifying war. It's all madness and murder for profit. But even so, I can't help but think maybe Camp Gordon and the men who trained there deserve a little fist bump.

THE LONG WAY HOME is the story of American Immigrants who served in World War I. This amazing page turner is filled with the fascinating stories of 12 different men. They were Polish, Irish, Italians, Slovaks, Norwegians, Jews and Russians. When arriving in America most of these men stayed close to their own ethnic groups. They worked together and lived in close knit groups of people from their former countries. Prior to the war, many of the men never even learned the English language because they rarely had cause to speak English. They worked the hard physical labor jobs in steel mills, factories, mines, and harvesting crops and mostly surrounded by their own people.

When the Great War began, the recent immigrants were concerned about their families back in Europe. Depending on which country they came from, they were worried that America could be in combat with their native country.

Most of these men were drafted, but some volunteered. The first big confusion for them was boot camp. All of these different nationalities were mixed together with English speaking officers. They couldn't speak to one another much less understand their military trainers. Nevertheless, the army eventually worked out getting bilingual officers which helped a great deal and the men could voice their questions and concerns. The priests, rabbis and ministers were also a great moral help to the soldiers.

The horrors of the battlefield was painful to read and was terrible for the men to endure. Seeing their friends killed in front of them and helping to bury their fellow soldiers is something that stayed with them until the end of their lives.

Many of the men were waiting to fulfill their time frames so that they could become American citizens when they went home. On September 9, 1918, an order issued by General Pershing allowed for alien soldiers serving in Europe to file for immediate citizenship before returning to the U.S. General Pershing further ordered his officers to see that the men received the paperwork and were helped to fill out their forms for citizenship. To quote the author, "they entered the army as aliens and returned as Americans, often as heroes."

This book is packed with so much information about the Great War and as the granddaughter of immigrants this was a terrific learning experience.

The book fulfills its promise. We follow 12 men as they come from European countries - usually under difficult, painful conditions - to immigrate to the US and then join the military. These men struggle to cross the ocean, struggle to fit into the US and then struggle to be integrated into a military system.

The book is extremely well written. It reads like a great sprawling novel. The author has chosen to organize by time periods rather than by subject. Instead of following one man over time, each chapter covers a time period with diverse stories of several men. We get a strong sense of history but a lack of continuity; I had trouble getting a sense of each man's journey.

The author could have shortened the early portions of the book, as the emigration stories seem familiar: difficult passages in steerage class, papers in Ellis Island, and the disheartening search for work. The real story begins as these men enlist or get drafted. Officers and sergeants expressed skepticism: can this group of foreign Definitel-born men, many out of shape and struggling with language, become strong soldiers? I'd have liked to learn more about the men's response to boot camp. Except for some specific incidents, we don't get scenes from the recruits' perspective. I'd also like to see more about the impact of military service on the men. Some remained proud of their service throughout their lives. It wasn't clear why none seemed to suffer from PTSD or experience long-term harm.

The author doesn't sugarcoat or promote a gung-ho ideology He reports the shameful treatment of the Hutterites, who refuse to serve for religious reasons.

The battle scenes are quite detailed and they can be harrowing to read. I'd say this book belongs more with military history than with WWI history and biography. The author focuses on accurate description rather than analysis, so it is up to the reader to draw comparisons with contemporary military and immigration stories. For instance, after the melting pot experiences of the war, I'd have expected greater change in attitude among the general population. Yet I've heard numerous first-hand stories of horrific prejudice through the forties and fifties, even to this day. Despite the service and sacrifice of thousands of immigrants, anti-immigration sentiment continues and may have deepened.

Ultimately, though, the book succeeds. The writing is good and descriptions are graphic. Many readers will find themselves thinking about these men and those times for some time to come.

America in 1917 is a very different place then we know. This is a world of horses, oil lamps and immigrants. Italians, Central Europeans with a goodly number of Germans and Scandinavians were the majority of the current immigrants. Many of them were Jewish all of them were looking for a better life. Over and above the immigrants, were the first generation Americans. The majority of Americans had at least a grandparent born in Europe.

Even as they struggled to adjust and survive, the world they left was falling apart. America's "great war" was the Civil War. These veterans were aging and their pensions were a major part of the Federal budget. America stood apart from Europe and the people liked this. They wanted nothing to do with Kings, Dukes and still look at Great Britain with suspicion. In spite of this, little by little, America in 1917 entered World War I on the side of the Allies. This book tells the stories of 12 men, immigrants or first generation that served in the war.

This is much more than a war story. The author looks at their lives in Europe and in America. This is not a pretty picture in most cases. Grinding poverty in immigrant ghettos, long hours of backbreaking labor, discrimination was often their world. This is a story of determination and survival showing what our grandparents or great grandparents overcame.

Drafted or enlisted, these men faced a harrowing experience in both training camps and at the front. Unprepared cannot convey the obstacles the army and the immigrants faced. The author follows our group from induction to combat. This can be graphic and very unsettling as the realities of trench warfare settle in.

"Postwar" gives the reader a quick look at their lives after this book. It makes them "more real" and brings them closer to us. This is a warm book. The author shows affection for these men and admires them for what they did. The book has photos, index and endnotes. This is not a scholarly work but designed as a popular history, read this for enjoyment as much or more than for information. We have very little good WWI personal histories and this is an addition to that number. These men are gone but they will "live on" in the pages of this book and the hearts of those who read it.

When David Laskin decided to write about twelve different immigrants and their stories at the turn of the 20th century, the undertaking had to be daunting. It is difficult to keep a nonfiction story flowing with just one character, but with twelve, it becomes much more than difficult. To his credit, Laskin keeps the story moving, even if it becomes somewhat choppy at times. This reader would get engrossed in the current character only to be switched to another, sometimes too quickly. However, each of the characters selected in this book were interesting enough to keep me forging ahead.

Raskin selected his twelve immigrants from all over Europe and gave as much background that was available on their reasons for coming to America. Then he carried that story through their initial years as they struggled to survive in their new country. Then he began into the real meat and basis for the book: How would these newly arrived immigrants fight when called on in WWI? Would they fight for America? Would they sympathize with their homeland countries? What about the German immigrants? How would the language barrier be overcome? All good questions with very interesting ramifications to our country.

As only the second generation of my family to be born in America, I had a particular interest in this book. All of my grandparents came from Italy during the time frame of this book. So it was captivating to me to see the reasons for their "escape" from Italy and then it was heartbreaking to actually read about their new life here in the land with "streets paved with gold". This is a story of America in all of its past glories and mysteries. It is a story of why so many risked so much for just that chance to own property, earn money for themselves and live in freedom.

Unfortunately, Laskin also tells the tales of four tortured Hutterites, that were imprisoned, tortured and (two) were let die because they were conscientious objectors on religious grounds. This is sad story that is never told in the history books. This practice was somewhat corrected during WWII, but only if they would be interned in Civilian Public Service Camps where they did 9 hours of manual labor, six days per week and then they had to pay $35 per day just to be there. I'm not sure where all the sympathetic progressives were during these situations, but they weren't in the Wilson's or FDR's administrations.

The foreign born fighters in WWI accounted themselves very well. It may have been the turning point in American history when immigrants became Americans in spirit and not just in words. The Great War was the melting pot for the different peoples with different languages and if no other good could be found to come out this horrible atrocity of a war, then maybe the growing into the American culture for millions of foreign born Americans was the only thing of value. After all, we learned that a President could silence the masses with jail time for even speaking out against his policies, we found a President that lied outright about sending troops to Europe's war and we found out how inept Wilson and the other Heads of State were in re-defining the Continent as the world stills feels their foolishness and the rebellions continue unabated to this day. Millions and millions of young soldiers were killed during WWI and the question still remains - what was it all for?

The footnotes were sloppy and lacking; there were occasions that quotes were used and then not footnoted in the back. However, the research done seemed to be adequate for this style of book.

Thsi is a fascinating account of the contributions to the American war effort during World War I by immigrants from various countries.

Each immigrant's story is told from its beginning in old country to his arrival in the US to our entrance into the war.

There is a great deal of related material about the political and cultural climate in the US leading up to the war. The author does a great job in describing the military campaign.

This book is a great addition to one's shelf of American history books.

"They had gone into the army expecting Jews to be cowards, Italians to be thieves, Germans to be spies, Poles to be lazy, Irish to be disloyal - but even in the thick of combat they stopped to acknowledge how wrong they had been." (pg 245) But this isn't just a war story - it's a story of immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. Some found it, while others only traded locations. While focusing mostly on 12 individuals, this book tells the stories and experiences of some who emigrated from Europe only to return to fight in the Great War.

This is almost two stories in one. The first tells in sepia-toned language the immigrant story of their lives in Italy, Poland, Russia, Ireland, Norway; the poverty, hardship, and persecution many endured (I was reminded of the excellent memoir The Invisible Wall). But opportunity lay in America and so they braved the crowded ships, often resettling in immigrant neighborhoods surrounded by their own kind. But the war changed all that, and the second story takes a dramatic shift to tell of their service in the mud and trenches of Verdun and the Argonne. Where individual details and stories are missing Laskin fills in from the experiences of contemporaries and paints a grim picture of the life of the WWI soldier. They returned no longer hyphenated Americans, but as Americans with a foreign heritage.

David Laskin writes powerfully at times, although occasionally the whole feels a little uneven. But it's a well-researched and important book that reminds us that America is a better nation for the service and sacrifice of those who answered when called. It also touches on issues of relevance today, and while the book offers some very salient food for thought, Mr. Laskin refrains from editorializing in these pages and keeps the focus on the history, letting it speak for itself. I enjoyed this book and it made me want to thank a veteran for their service.

This book describes the personal experiences of a range of chosen refugees immigrating to, and fighting for the US in WWI. Brief and selected family histories, and the US immigrant experience during the latter half of the 19th Century and during the early part of the 20th century are explored. In particular, the motivations of new immigrants volunteering to fight for the US are thoroughly examined.

The book exhibits a tendency to be two things in one. Both a book about the immigrants, as as well as a book about fighting in WWI. The first half, with its descriptions of immigrant life in the old country, as well as in the New World is quite enthralling. A great deal of research was performed by the author while tracing the roots of very immigrant families, the result is quite engrossing. The latter half of the book is rather perplexing in that it jumps suddenly to the WWI battlefield and descriptions (in minute detail) of various battles and battlegrounds. The change is a bit jarring one feels that this most interesting tale would have been better served by having been represented in 2 books, instead of one.

Still, the book is a fascinating view into the minds and motivations of "typical" immigrants to the US at the time. The book is well worth the read and will certainly contribute to the history of immigration to the US as a whole. Recommended reading.