The history of the United States has been shaped by immigration. Historian Carl Bon Tempo provides a sweeping historical narrative told through the lives and words of the quite ordinary people who did nothing less than make the nation.
Drawn from stories spanning the colonial period to the present, Bon Tempo (and his co-author) detail the experiences of people from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They explore the many themes of American immigration scholarship, including the contexts and motivations for migration, settlement patterns, work, family, racism, and nativism, against the background of immigration law and policy.
Taking a global approach that considers economic and personal factors in both the sending and receiving societies, the authors pay close attention to how immigration has been shaped by the state response to its promises and challenges.
Carl Bon Tempo is associate professor of history at UAlbany. His new book is "Immigration: An American History," co-authored by Hasia R. Diner.
