IMMIGRANT AMERICA IN THE ININETEENTH CENTURY: MAP 551
206 Silver Hall
Hasia R. Diner
History Department/Hebrew and Judaic Studies
Tuesday-Thursday 12:30-1:45
Office Hours: Tuesday – Thursday 2:00-3:00.
206 Silver
Course Assistants:
Gabby Goldberg ggolderg1@gmail.com
Allan Amanik allan.amanik@gmail.com
The “long nineteenth century,” from the 1820s through the 1920s saw the arrival of
no fewer than 50 million immigrants to the United States. Coming primarily, although
not exclusively, from Europe, their migrations not only transformed the places they left,
but profoundly altered American society. These migrations, all of which involved a high
degree of choice on the part of their participants, took place within the context of family
and communal decision making, which in turn impacted significantly on the women and
men who made these journeys, allowing –or forcing—them to create new kinds of
identities, institutions, and cultures. They indeed, as a result of their migrations, became
new people. They became “ethnic,” as they had to redefine themselves both in terms of
what they left, what they “brought” with them, and what they encountered in America.
By and large these millions of women and men left places which were first entering into
an era in social and economic history that scholars label “modern” and they went to a
place that many consider to have been the exemplar of modernity. How, this course will
ask, did their journeys, both in terms of space and time, lead to the creation of a set of
ethnic communities in America, which we can see as specific and unique and yet
resembling each other in notable ways.
The course will focus on three seemingly very different nineteenth century groups:
Irish, Italian, and Jewish, immigrants and the ethnic cultures they created. These four
groups had different patterns of migration, different relationships with a place that they
called “back home,” or the “old world,” and they confronted very different political and
economic realities in America. Yet each dealt with a set of common concerns: what to
preserve of the traditional culture in the radically different setting? How to sustain
community in the face of the powerful pull of American culture? How to engage with
America vis-à-vis language, politics, and the like? How did new realties within the group
in terms of gender, class, and generation shape newly emerging ethnic practices in
America? The course will also ask how the reception of immigrants from these three
groups, on the part of the larger American society, shaped the kinds of ethnic cultures
which emerged. To what degree did acceptance or rejection by Americans leave their
impress on the ethnic cultures and communities?
We will spend several weeks on each group, with an introductory and concluding
session that will put the material covered by the course into a deeper context. They will
also explore how Americans from a number of perspectives observed the immigrants and
how they assessed the impact of immigration on American society.
Students will in the main be reading primary sources and one of the course’s goals is
to come to an understanding of how sources drive historical thinking. Each type of source
–fiction, memoir, autobiography, reportage, among others—has its limitations and we
will think about how these kinds of sources open up our knowledge yet at the same time
limit what we know about the past, particularly when we are studying large groups of
people like the men and women who constituted the immigrant populations.
ASSIGNED READINGS:
Hasia Diner, Hungering for America: Irish, Italian, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of
Migration
Orsi, Robert, The Madonna of 115th Street
Pietro Di Donato, Christ in Concrete
Charles Fanning, ed., Mr. Dooley and the Chicago Irish
Anzia Yeszierska, Hungry Hearts
Isaac Metzker, TheBintel Brief
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
John Bodnar, The Transplanted
***We will be seeing two films in class, “The Italian” (1915) and “East and West”
(1923). Students will please write a one page reaction paper to the films, assessing how
these works reflect the themes raised in class and in the readings.
[The papers will be due one week after the screening of the film.]
***All students will, in addition, visit and write reaction papers to four museums:
---Irish Hunger Memorial, Vesey Street and North End Avenue in Battery Park. [This is a
free outdoor art installation and memorial]
---The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard Street
---Italian American History Museum, 115 Grand Street [open only on weekends: 12-5]
Admission $5.
---Ellis Island
[The papers will be due by the end of the relevant unit; the Ellis Island paper will be due
on the last day of class]
Please note: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum contains apartments which narrate
the history of all three groups under consideration in this course. The museum offers
packaged tours, which change from year to year. Most tours offer only two apartments. It
is likely, unless students want to go more than once, that they will not be able to see the
Moore (Irish), Baldizzi (Italian) and any of the Jewish apartments (Rogashefsky,
Gumperz, and Levine). Students should choose any tour that works for their schedule.
Student tickets are $15; the museum is located at 97 Orchard Street and you must book
your tour in advance. This can be done at the website of the museum.
Week One: 9/6; 9/8
Introduction: A Century of Migration: In this week students will be introduced to three
issues:
--locating the migration in time: why did it occur when it did?
--exploring the concepts of “culture,” “migration” and “ethnicity
Week Two: 9/13; 9/15
A Nation of Immigrants/A Nation of Ethnic Groups
Locating the immigration to America in time: why did it occur when it did?
Reading: John Bodnar, The Transplanted
Week Three: 9/20; 9/22
The Irish: America’s first group of mass migrants.
Causes of the migration: the nature of the migration.
Reading: Hasia Diner, Hungering for America: Chapters 3 [pp. 84-112]
Week Four: 9/27 [no class 9/29]
The Irish: Religion, Family and Food
Reading: Hasia Diner, Hungering Chapter 4 [pages 113-145]
Guest Performance in class: Professor Mick Malone, NYU Gluckman Ireland House;
Irish singer and musicologist
Week Five: 10/4; 10/7
The Irish: Politics as culture
Reading: Charles Fanning, Mr. Dooley and the Chicago Irish
***During the weeks we are working on the Irish immigration, please visit the Irish
Hunger Memorial
Week Six: 10/13
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
[as this is also a religious holiday, any student who needs to will be able to take the exam
at a different time, to be arranged with Professor Diner and/or the class assistants]
Week Seven: 10/18; 10/20
Italians to America:
The Migration and its contexts and consequences
Reading: Hasia Diner, Hungering for America, Chapter 2 [pp. 21-47]
Film: “The Italian” (1915) [on 10/20]
[10/20 is also a religious holiday and any student who cannot be present can see the film
on their own. Please see Professor Diner and/or the class assistants]
Week Eight: 10/25; 10/27
Italian Americans: as they saw themselves and as Americans saw them;
Reading: Robert Orsi,The Madonna of 115th Street; Riis, How the Other Half Lives,
Chapter V, VI
Week Nine 11/1; 11/3
Italian: Religion, Family, Food, and Language
Reading: Pietro Di Donato, Christ in Concrete
Hungering for America, Chapter 4 [pages 48-83]
* During the weeks that we are studying Italian immigration please visit the
ItalianAmerican History Museum and turn in your reaction paper]
Week Ten: 11/8/; 11/10
Jewish Migration to America:
From Across Europe, Causes and Contexts
Reading, Hungering for America, Chapter 5 [pp. 146-177]
Week Eleven: 11/15; 11/17
Jewish in America: Tradition and Modernity: Clashes and Reconciliations:
Family and Religion
Readings:
Hungering for America, Chapter 6 [pp. 178-219]
Anzia Yeszierska, The Hungry Heart
Week Twelve: 11/22
Jewish in America: Expressive Culture and New Forms: Journalism and Theater
Reading: Isaac Metzker, The Bintel Brief; Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Chapters X,
XI
Film: “East and West” (1923)
* During the weeks that we are studying Jewish immigration, plan your visit to the Lower
East Side Tenement Museum.”
Week Thirteen: 11/29; 12/1
Americans View the Immigrants
Reading, Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
Guest Speaker, John Hndeka, Deputy Superintendent, Ellis Island National Historic Site
Week Fourteen: 12/6/; 12/8
From Regulation to Restriction
* Students to visit Ellis Island
Week Fifteen: 12/13; 12/15
Similarities, Differences and the nature of ethnic culture
FINAL EXAMINATION
Students will be reading from 100-150 pages a week. The material is heavily primary
source and as such students will read less for the assimilation of “facts,” and more for the
acquisition of the “feel” of the culture, including the modes of expression and the issues
of concern to the subjects themselves.
FINAL PROJECT: Students will write a paper of 6-8 pages, based on the readings and
class sessions, which asks them to evaluate the degree to which the ethnic cultures of the
groups which we studied reflected:
--pre-migration experiences
--the nature of the migrations
--the opportunities available in America
--hostility faced by group members from Americans
Students will be asked to rank order these four factors for one group and to develop a
thesis as to why they chose one their particular hierarchy of factors.
ALL PAPERS MUST CONFORM TO THE UNIVERSITY’S RULES ON
PLAGARISM. DO NOT TAKE WORDS AND IDEAS OFF THE INTERNET OR ANY
OTHER SOURCE. SUCH ACTION WILL RESULT IN PUNITIVE ACTION.
Grade Break down:
Midterm examination: 20 percent
Final Examination: 25 percent
Final Project: 20 percent
Class Participation: 20 percent
Museum Reaction papers: 15 percent
Students are expected to attend all the lectures and discussion sections. The discussion
sections will focus heavily, although not exclusively, on the methodological implications
of the particular sources and subjects under consideration, including fiction, memoir,
journalism, museums, and film. Likewise the sections will expose students to the ways in
which studying food, music, religion, family, and gender all pose particular analytic
challenges.
Students will also attend the museums on their own. The reaction papers should not focus
on what students liked or did not like about the museum but rather (a) how did the
museum blend the story of individuals with the larger narrative of immigration and
ethnicity, (2) how did the museum present the nature of the immigration process, and (3)
how did the museum explore the ways in which immigrants came to terms with American
society.
The discussion sections will pay particular attention to discussing the films and the
exhibitions and students will be expected to demonstrate the fact of their having attended.
Material from the exhibits and the films will also figure in the examinations and can be
used for the final projects.
CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE
Please out of respect for the class:
Arrive on time
Do not leave the class unless you are ill
Turn off all cell phones and other electronic devices.
If you are using a laptop to take notes, refrain from emailing, playing games,
engaging with Face Book; it is obvious when students are doing this and it is extremely
rude.
Keep eating to a minimum and better still, do not do it at all.