Customer Reviews

And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990s (American History Series)

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Having done a large paper on immigration a year ago, I read numerous articles and books on the topic. This "recent" history by Barkan was one of the finest I came across. It does not force an ideology onto its readers, and has obviously been well-researched. Best yet, it is written in clear enough prose non-scholars can enjoy it. Recommended.

My first thoughts, after reading "And Still They Come" were, "What an amazing book." It is simply amazing to consider how much work we (the citizens of our nation) put into patriotic themes in our country such as "American as Apple Pie", "The American Way", "Proud to be an American", etc. yet we open our doors and subsidize people from all over the world just because they believe they can be free and prosperous. President Harry Truman's speech has driven us since 1945 when he said, "I consider that common decency and the fundamental comradeship of all human beings requires us to do what lies in our power...to reduce human suffering."

I understand why we invite all people to America because we want to offer humanitarian efforts and do not want the world to look at America as a repressive nation. It makes me wonder though where we are going to put all the people and how we Americans think we can afford to continue to save the world? Throughout history, our American Government has known that we must control immigration, yet here we are hosting over 30 million (my estimate using the 22.4 mil. admitted between 1945-1993 mentioned in Chapter 9 and added for the ensuing seventeen years) legally admitted immigrants to say nothing of their relatives and all of the illegal visitors we are hosting.

What is even more distressing to me is we are hosting and welcoming millions of people whom have no commitment to our country. They do not want to become citizens or even be buried here.

I found the entire book interesting and absorbing. I enjoyed and felt the most connected with the people interviewed throughout the book. I could not read about the problems people faced without feeling empathy.