Customer Reviews

Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924 (American Ways Series)

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During almost four centuries of immigration to America, few eras were more fascinating than the two or three decades preceding the First World War. The social tumult caused by the arrival of millions of southern and eastern Europeans was never to be repeated on quite such a scale. This book captures some of the excitement of the age and gives an insight into why, by the early 1920s, there was a "nativist" reaction. Alas, its lively, liberal-minded arguments are not always on the right track. Explaining the rise of anti-German sentiment, for example, it is wrong to accuse the British and French of inventing stories of First World War atrocities committed by Germans in Belgium. Such atrocities undoubtedly took place - in the historic university town of Louvain, for starters. Had this book been longer, it could have tackled such matters with greater sophistication.

The compilers of this great book deserve cudos, including for exposing the British propaganda hoaxes of World War I and their baleful role in increasing hatred against German-Americans. The burning of Louvain, e.g., happened in the chaotic struggle against partisans, it was an overreaction, but not a planned atrocity, on the level of the British army burning parts of Dublin in 1916. Anyhow, I teach US history and immigration courses, and strongly endorse that book.