Distant magnets

Dirk Hoerder, Horst Rössler, Horst Rossler

In this illuminating book, an international array of distinguished scholars focus on an important but largely undocumented issue in immigration history: What did immigrants to industrializing Europe and America expect of life in those "distant magnets" to which they migrated in such large numbers from the mid-nineteenth century through the late 1920's? What were their dreams, illusions, myths, fears, and hopes? How were they received in their new societies, and how did they fare? What did they think about and how did they feel? To convey the breadth and diversity of the migration, the volume documents the experiences of peasant and working-class emigrants from England, Ireland, Scandinavia, Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the Balkans, and East European Jewish communities. This comparative perspective enables the authors to distinguish similarities and differences among diverse...

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