Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom

Book Description

"Wilkes's photographs of the 'dark side' of Ellis Island are extraordinary…this book will be a major event."—David McCullough

For five years (1998-2003) New York photographer Stephen Wilkes explored the hospital complex that comprised the south side of Ellis Island. Neglected for almost fifty years, the buildings were in a state of extreme disrepair: lead paint peeled from the ceilings and walls, vines and trees grew through the floorboards, detritus and debris littered the hallways. In rooms long-abandoned, Wilkes captured a spirited new vision of this gateway to freedom.

Twelve million people passed through Ellis Island. Approximately one percent were turned away for health reasons. Wilkes's powerful images of the underbelly of the island—a purgatory between freedom and captivity—ask us to reflect on the defining experiences of millions. With that rare combination of an eye that sees far beyond the lens with the technical acumen of a master draftsman, Wilkes takes us on an unforgettable journey through our collective past. 77 color photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Stunning, hanunting, beautiful, inspirational for artists.......2007-07-03

As an artist, I purchased this after my artist friend showed it to me, to use as a guide for selecting particular colors and/or color combinations in abstract paintings. It is amazing that the light in the photos has been captured as it truly was--not altered or enhanced with SW to convey a particular mood. Everyone I have showed this to has been propelled to stop and look through every image in the book--it draws you in as you flip through the pages. The colors portray emotion. Content is one of a kind. Highly recommended.

Hauntingly beautiful photographs.......2007-05-07

I found this book to be stunning and thought provoking-I wondered about how frightened and angry immigrants must have been to be treated in such a way after what they went through before.

Ellis Island's skeletel remains.......2007-03-29

The pictures speak of the passing of time with such a quietness. One can only imagine the complete opposite when Ellis Island was a sea of humanity speaking and crying and hoping while glimpsing NY's famed skyline so nearby. So many hopes realized, so many unfulfilled.

Beautiful Book, Great Photographs.......2007-03-27

I Love this book, the pictures are beautiful, the design and layout make the pictures and quotes very moving. As a photographer I admire the quality of the work, and the bright vivid prints. I love that most of the images are full pages, sometimes spread across two pages, with small text labeling the room, or part of the property. There are no frames, page designs, or paragraphs to take away from the imagery. For more information and details the photographer includes a section of thumbnails with descriptions, stories about the room, or the shooting conditions, or even bitd of history. The thumbnails and text are at the back of the book with an arial shot and map showing the layout of the buildings. It really helps to peice together the history of Ellis Island. The quotes including add to the emotion behind the images, and I like that they were on parchment paper, so that you can see the pictures behind it. The books are being enjoyed by me and my mother, who is very interested in the hostory of Ellis Island, while I enjoy it for the photography. Great book to own, everyone should have a copy.

Full-page, oversized and striking displays,.......2007-03-12

For five years author Stephen Wilkes explored and photographed the hospital complex which made up the south side of Ellis Island: an area neglected for nearly fifty years. His photos, presented in full-page, oversized and striking displays, are accompanied by overlay pages of impressions that make for a truly striking gathering. While ELLIS ISLAND is a pick for any collection strong in immigration history, it's reviewed here for its hard-hitting impact in the world of cultural photography, as well: not only college-level collections strong in immigration images but general-interest libraries and art libraries specializing in contemporary photography must have it.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Become White. The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs

Average customer rating:

Uncovering history
The explanatory power of this book is phenomenal!
Outstanding History
Joseph R. Goldman, University of Minnesota
Roediger focuses on Southern & Eastern European immigrants

Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Become White. The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs
David R. Roediger
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0465070736
Release Date: 2005-05-31

Book Description

By an award-winning historian of race and labor, a definitive account of how Ellis Island immigrants became accepted as cultural insiders in America

At the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history, David Roediger is one of the most highly respected scholars in his field. He is also the author of the now-classic The Wages of Whiteness, a study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, he continues that history into the twentieth century, recounting how American ethnic groups that are considered white today, such as Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans, once occupied a confused racial status in their new country.

While some historians have claimed that these immigrants were "white on arrival," Roediger paints a very different picture, showing that it wasn't until the 1920s (ironically, just when immigration laws became much more restrictive), that these ethnic groups definitively became part of white America, primarily thanks to the nascent labor movement and a rise in home-buying. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants -the real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods- Working Toward Whiteness explores the murky realities of race in twentieth-century America. In this masterful history, which is sure to be a key text in its field, David Roediger charts the strange transformation of these new immigrants into the"white ethnics" of America today.

Customer Reviews:

Uncovering history.......2007-04-05

Roediger's book, Working Towards Whiteness helps to illuminate a gap in most American's historical knowledge, the shifting line of racial classification. While we often accept that current definition of race, including whiteness are givens, Roediger does a great job of laying out the process of how many European immigrants, while "white" wouldn't have been the beneficiaries of the privileges of "whiteness" they share in today.
While we've got a long way to go towards being a fully inclusive country, we could make a great deal more headway towards that goal if people took the time to read this work.

The explanatory power of this book is phenomenal!.......2006-12-27

As a teenager, one of the most common questions I heard on a regular basis was people of all racial/ethnic backgrounds asking "Are Italians white?" If only I could have given them a copy of David Roediger's Working Toward Whiteness for the full story on this matter...

Roediger effectively demonstrates that racial categories are social/cultural constructions, and not inherent biological realities. Anyone who tries to argue otherwise simply needs to read this book first. Roediger meticulously illustrates that "white" is not only NOT a biological category, but many of the people who Americans today regard as "white" (Jews, Italians, Slavs, Poles, Irishmen) were overwhelmongly regarded as members of "inferior races" who threated "white" (Anglo-Saxon Protestant) America in the not-so-distant past. From 1900-1960, the meaning and conceptualization of "whiteness" underwent a dramatic transformation that came to include peoples of Eastern and Southern European descent.

From the mines, sweatshops, and factories of America's cities at the beginning of the 20th century, Eastern European immigrants toiled and labored in a sort of racial/ethnic limbo in America where they occupied an intermediate status - clearly more socially desirable than blacks, Asians, or Mexicans, but clearly inferior to "Nordic" and "Anglo-Saxon" Americans of Northern European heritage and Protestant religious beliefs. Following World War II and the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, these peoples came to become "white ethnics" - fully accepted into the American mainstream. Roediger's book is a must-read to understand how this metamorphosis occurred.

A great feature of this book is that it is NOT written in heavy, technical, academic jargon! A layperson will have no idea grasping the concepts and arguments in Working Toward Whiteness. Roediger is a hawk for detail, and this book is loaded with an incredible amount of small, intricate historical events that serve as wonderful illustrations of his larger points. For example: were you aware that Italian-Americans during the 1930s resisted "whites only" housing projects in South Philadelphia because they feared it would result in an influx of Jews, Greeks, and Irishmen into their neighborhoods?

If you are a "white ethnic" yourself, interested in learing how racial categories came into being in American society, or just want to learn the true version of American history (that wasn't taught to you in school), then you owe it to yourself to read this outstanding and important work.

Outstanding History.......2006-08-29

Roediger does a great job refrenceing his case in other historians. This is VERY importnat when discussing challenging topics like this.

Joseph R. Goldman, University of Minnesota.......2005-09-09

This is one of the finest sociological treatises on American immigration of a former "underclass"- -working Whites from southern and eastern Europe who came to this country in droves between the 1880s and 1930s. Roediger presents a solid analytical framework for readers to use as a compass through the complex history and transformation of "foreigners" of the same color into "gradual natives" whose color is a badge of acceptable passage over time. Here we see Jews, Italians, Poles, Ukrainians and other "undesirables" sweat their way across factory floors, climb to academic heights, even get elected to high national offices beyond the dreams of their ancestors. The data are presented clearly; the interpretations are crisp and penetrating. Roediger does a great service to his subjects who happened to be "Americans in the making". A must study for any scholar of race and assimilation, and a good read for anyone interested in how some of us got to be "Americans" even with the wrong religions, national origins, or accents as impediments fueled by homegrown bigots of an earlier time!

Roediger focuses on Southern & Eastern European immigrants.......2005-08-31

David Roediger has been toiling for years in the historical trenches, documenting the social construction of race. This is another solid entry in that category. It's not exhaustive, but compiles material on how Eastern and Southern European immigrants to the U.S. "became white." The category of "white people" is treated as a given, and as a constant in the U.S. today, but Roediger and others reveal the shifting meaning of the category, and the fight that various groups have waged to gain entry into the "white club" with its privileges. Just one example: the club was established by the British, of course, and from their point of view the Irish were certainly not white. The ruling WASPs had the power to keep the Irish out, viewing them as practically subhuman, and it took the Irish many decades to fight their way in. So "white" is a marker of group boundary between the more and less powerful, pure and simple, a marker of division, not an inherent biological OR cultural category.

One of the original works in this field was Ted Allen's THE INVENTION OF THE WHITE RACE. Noel Ignatiev, inspired by Allen, wrote HOW THE IRISH BECAME WHITE, and launched the journal RACE TRAITOR as well, with the slogan "treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity." In the meantime, Roediger had emerged as a major voice in history, legitimating the line of research that led to Allen gaining a wider audience and Ignatiev writing his Ph.D. thesis. Another recent book that covers much of the same territory as WORKING TOWARD WHITENESS is WHITENESS OF A DIFFERENT COLOR by Matthew Frye Jacobson, which I highly recommend. Yet another valuable work in the field by a sociologist is THE ETHNIC MYTH: RACE, ETHNICITY AND CLASS IN AMERICA by Stephen Steinberg, which documents how ethnic/racial boundaries have been used to justify and enforce economic (class) subjugation in the U.S.

From Ellis Island to JFK: New York`s Two Great Waves of Immigration

Average customer rating:

Useful, if not brilliant

From Ellis Island to JFK: New York`s Two Great Waves of Immigration
Nancy Foner
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0300093217

Book Description

Two great waves of immigration-one at the start of the twentieth century and another in its final decades-transformed the history and personality of New York City. This book, the first in-depth comparison of New York's two most recent immigration eras, reassesses the myths that surround both sets of immigrants. Winner of the 2000 Theodore Saloutos Book Award of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society

Customer Reviews:

Useful, if not brilliant.......2000-12-09

This book is useful, though not brilliant. It provides a comparison between the great wave of Jewish and Italian immigrants to New York at the turn of the last century, and the present wave of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. Foner's account look at where immigrants live, how they work, immigrant women in particular, the sting of prejudice, the matter of ties to the old country and going to school. She seeks to refute the view which uses the success of the first wave and selected members of the second wave as a stick to beat everyone else. By and large she succeeds. She reminds us that one reason why many Asian-American have excellent education and social mobility records in the United States is because they were well educated members of the middle class back in Asia. She points out that it took a couple of generations before Jews experienced middle class status and high school graduation. She reminds us that despite fears of America becoming increasingly balkanized new immigrants are more "american" than previous waves because of the world of mass culture. There are nuanced discussions about the mixed blessings of wage labor and increased independence. There is an interesting chapter on how Jews and Italians were viewed in the past as non-white, and how Asians and Hispanics are becoming increasingly "white." There is much in here that counters the widespread moralistic underclass discourses that have made The New Republic the fashionable magazine of our day's Vanity Fair. There is a nuanced discussion of the effect immigrants have on black employment. Some pundits, shedding crocodile tears for African-Americans suggest they would be better off if immigrants were not taking their jobs. But in fact, as Foner points out, many immigrants are not directly displacing blacks because they work in niches where blacks either were rarely employed or actually excluded. On the other hand, working in sweatshop jobs often makes them less attractive to native workers and helps lower wage rates. Often employers use stereotypes to immigrants' benefits and blacks' detriment. On the other hand by increasing the New York population they encourage African American strength in public employment and stop the decline in business that comes from a falling population. So why does this book only get three stars? Well, many of its insights aren't particularly new, that they may be a revelation to readers does not mean they are to people who study the topic. There is little about politics of immigrants, either electorally or through such measures as unions. There could be more about class in the book, both within immigrant communities and within the problem of New York as a whole. It is not that the subject goes unmentioned but it is noteworthy that there is no entry under the index for "Gulliani." The result is nourishing, but bland; it could use a little more bite.

I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project

Average customer rating:

Good Lesson Resource
really pretty

I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project
Veronica Lawlor
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140556222

Customer Reviews:

Good Lesson Resource.......2007-05-06

This was a good lesson resource for teaching Ellis Island. My students even made their own pictures after reading this book.

really pretty.......2003-08-31

It's a really pretty book. I really advise you to buy it. The images are both personal, unique, as well as intelligent.

If Your Name Was Changed At Ellis Island (If You.)

Average customer rating:

Good Historical Nonfiction
Brings back an almost forgotten era
Terrific Book!

If Your Name Was Changed At Ellis Island (If You.)
Ellen Levine
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0590438298

Book Description

Describes, in question and answer format, the great migration of immigrants to New York's Ellis Island, from the 1880s to 1914. Features quotes from children and adults who passed through the station.

Customer Reviews:

Good Historical Nonfiction.......2007-03-30

Ellis Island was the main immigration port for the United States from the 1890s to the 1910s. This children's book outlines the process for immigrants coming to America: where they left from, the journey, arriving at Ellis Island and following procedures, and what they did after they left the Island. The book structure follows a question and answer structure, answering good questions like what the immigrants brought with them, how their names may have been changed, and what happened if they didn't speak English. It also shows the perspective of the immigration agents, which was especially interesting to me- to process the amount of people they had coming in, they gave a "six-second medical exam" to determine for any contagious diseases and mental defects. The books also talks about some agents who would let people slip by with a kind smile and good wishes. The illustrations seem dated, and the book would really come to life with better renderings, but it's interesting to see the view of New York coming from across the Atlantic, and to see the Grand Hall where immigrants split up to go either into New York or for quarantine. The amount of information and text make this book more appropriate for an older child, but would be perfect as research for a project on immigration or family history. [...]

Brings back an almost forgotten era.......2004-05-29

When my niece (from L.A.) first came to New York, she was seven years old. I took her to the rehabilitated Ellis Island, and she was (for a seven year old) fascinated to learn that her great grandparents along with millions of other immigrants had stepped across that pier and became Americans. For Christmas, I sent her this brilliant book.

"If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island" by Ellen Levine answered many of the questions that I could not. She sent me back a glowing thank you note, and told me her teacher loved her book report on this book. Eventually, I picked up the book for myself. Guess what? For many first-, second- or third-generation Americans this book answers a lot of questions from that nearly forgotten era, and of that generation of people who helped America as they helped themselves. This is a great testimony to Ms. Levine and illustrator Wayne Parmenter to their well-planned book.

Rocco Dormarunno
Author of The Five Points

Terrific Book!.......2003-10-13

This is a very concise and informational book about immigration in the early 20th Century. I learned a lot from this book and suspect my students will too.

The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts from the Immigrant Experience

Average customer rating:

Time travel
A 'museum in a box' of 23 reproduced replicas of artifacts

The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts from the Immigrant Experience
Chronicle Books LLC Staff
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0811838552

Book Description

Explore the legacy of Ellis Island via this fascinating collection. Between 1892 and 1924, millions of people from all corners of the globe waited a stone's throw from Lady Liberty, hoping to pass the rigorous inspections that could allow or deny them to set foot on U.S. soil. In this box you'll find more than 25 meticulously reproduced replicas of artifacts documenting the complicated immigration process at the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears." Hold pieces of history as you reflect on the immigrant experience at Ellis Island.

Includes
- Boarding card of an immigrant
- Ship passenger list
- Passport of an immigrant
- Ellis Island dining room menu
- Declaration of Intention form
- Landing card
- Steamship company's poster advertisement
- Literacy test
- Photographic portraits of families on Ellis Island
- And much, much more!

Customer Reviews:

Time travel.......2004-12-27

This is a little box with reproduced artifacts from some of the people who travelled through Ellis Island. It is really clever, because the items look and feel real. There is a book which explains the background of Ellis Island, and then explains the implications of each item in the box. It literally transports the mind into the mind of the person to whom the replica once belonged.

I felt really quite moved once I had thoroughly explored the contents - better than any book - any day.

This collection is an experience in itself.

By the way - interestingly, I have no connection to any of the immigrants. I am a Brit who visited Ellis Island this winter, and was moved by my experience. This is the best momento I could have wished for, for my visit.

A 'museum in a box' of 23 reproduced replicas of artifacts .......2004-12-09

The roots of millions of immigrants to the United States are evident in modern generations of mixed cultures, and celebrating the major gateway into this country is Chronicle Books' The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts From The Immigrant Experience, providing a 'museum in a box' of 23 reproduced replicas of artifacts found at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 from Irish Catholics and Italians to Hungarians and more. Among the relics in a colorful gift box: an immigrant boarding card, passenger list, Ellis Island lunch menu and much more.

Average customer rating:

A lovely, sentimental story

The Memory Coat
Elvira Woodruff
Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0590677179

Customer Reviews:

A lovely, sentimental story.......2000-06-07

I purchased a copy of this book for a friend whose great grandparents immigrated from Russia and entered the United States through Ellis Island and then purchased one for myself to read aloud to my third grade students. The paintings are beautiful and haunting; some in color, some in sepia tones. The story itself is heartwarming and sentimental.

Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: the Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs

Average customer rating:

Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: the Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs
David R. Roediger
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0465070744

Book Description

A preeminent scholar explores the history of the "new immigrants" who came to the United States in the late nineteenth century and describes how they became insiders by the end of World War II

At the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history, David R. Roediger is the author of the now-classic The Wages of Whiteness, a study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, he continues that history into the twentieth century. He recounts how American ethnic groups considered white today-including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans-once occupied a confused racial status in their new country. They eventually became part of white America thanks to the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants--the racist real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods--Roediger explores the murky realities of race in twentieth-century America. A masterful history by an award-winning writer, Working Toward Whiteness charts the strange transformation of these new immigrants into the "white ethnics" of America today.

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

An Italian American Odyssey is a treasure to be savored.......2007-04-07

Written by acclaimed artist and educator B. Amore, An Italian American Odyssey: Through Ellis Island and Beyond is not just a single person's memoir - it is the collective memoir of seven generations of an Italian-American family, chronicling the story of their journey to America. Full color photographs and collages are displayed on almost every other page of the English-language first half of the compendium; the second half presents an Italian translation of the English text, though without the photographs. The text is not a single continuous text, but rather an eclectic selection of vignettes, first-person testimonies, letters, insights, diaries, and much more. An Italian American Odyssey is a treasure to be savored a few pages at a time or all at once, and a wondrous window into the difficult yet often rewarding task of adapting to new challenges.

Do People Grow on Family Trees?: Genealogy for Kids and Other Beginners, The Official Ellis Island Handbook

Average customer rating:

Excellent Genealogy Starting Point for Kids and Others

Do People Grow on Family Trees?: Genealogy for Kids and Other Beginners, The Official Ellis Island Handbook
Ira Wolfman
Manufacturer: Workman Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0894803484

Book Description

An exciting genealogical primer, do people grow on family trees? combines activities, history, photographs, illustrations, and reminiscences. Suitable for ages 8-12. 121,000 copies in print.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Genealogy Starting Point for Kids and Others.......1997-10-27

This book brings the study of genealogy alive by intertwining the author's own family search with the common experience of many of us to find our own roots and beginnings. It sensitively handles cultural differences and origins and attempts to highlight specific events that affected particular immigrant groups.

The frequent use of biographical resources (photographs, documents, sidenotes) allows the reader to relate the discussion of genealogy to actual people and events in history. Since this is also called the "Official Ellis Island Handbook" this book additionally gives a very personal and thorough look at what it meant to be an immigrant and the experience that awaited many of our ancestors when they arrived in America.

I highly recommend this book not only for children but for anyone that desires a concise definition of the field of genealogy and family history. Its highly visual format and organization also make it a great classroom tool.

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