The Places of Migration in United States History

Readings

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
Part 1: Then
Introduction
1	Lecture and Discussion: Where is Immigration History?	Holt, Hamilton, ed. “The Life Story of an Irish Cook.” In The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans: As Told By Themselves (1906). Expanded ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999. ISBN: 9780415925105. Jen, Gish. “Who’s Irish?” In Who’s Irish: Stories. New York, NY: A. A. Knopf, 1999, pp. 1-16. ISBN: 9780375406218. Daniels, Roger. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2004, pp. 1-58. ISBN: 9780809053438.
Lawrence
2	Lecture: European Migrants at the Turn of the Century	Watson, Bruce. Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream. New York, NY: Viking, 2005, pp. 1-118. ISBN: 9780670033973.
3	Discussion	Watson, Bruce. Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream. New York, NY: Viking, 2005, pp. 119-240. ISBN: 9780670033973.
Chinatown
4	Lecture: Asian Immigrants at the Turn of the Century	Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 158-203 and 225-258. ISBN: 9780520226296.
5	Discussion	Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 158-203 and 225-258. ISBN: 9780520226296.
Mapping Lawrence, Mapping Chinatown
6	Multimedia Resources Informal Student Presentations	Kazal, Russell. “Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in American Ethnic History.” American Historical Review 100 (April 1995): 437-471. Gabaccia, Donna R. “Is Everywhere Nowhere?: Nomads, Nations, and the Immigrant Paradigm of United States History.” Journal of American History 86 (December 1999): 1115-1134.
7	Film: Farmingville	Farmingville. Directed by Catherine Tambini and Carolos Sandoval. 2003. PBS Web site on Farmingville
Tampa
8	Lecture and Discussion: The World of Caribbean Migration	Mormino, Gary R., and George E. Pozzetta. The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1986, pp. 1-42 and 63-141. ISBN: 9780252013515. Students will read and report on one additional chapter from chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Gabaccia, Donna. “Gli Italiani nel Mondo: Italy’s Workers around the World.” OAH Magazine of History 14 (Fall 1999): 12-16.
The Border
9	Lecture and Discussion: The Border/Nuestra America	Johnson, Benjamin Heber. Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780300094251. The book is fairly long, but there are ways to focus your reading. The Introduction, as always, is very useful. Chapter 1 is particularly useful for the history of south Texas - definitely read it, but don’t worry too much about the details. Chapters 2 and 3 give you background on the Tejano/a community and the Mexican Revolution - if you skim anywhere, skim here. Chapters 4-7 are the heart of the book. “Some Events in the History of Mexico and the Border.” Journal of American History 86 (September 1999): 453-455.
Chicago
10	Lecture: Was the Great Migration Great?	Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York, NY: A. A. Knopf, 1991, pp. 1-221, begin reading. ISBN: 9780394560045.
11	Discussion	Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York, NY: A. A. Knopf, 1991, pp. 1-221, finish reading. ISBN: 9780394560045. Kirby, Jack Temple. “The Southern Exodus: A Primer for Historians.” Journal of Southern History 49 (November 1983): 585-600.
Hollywood
12	Discussion (cont.) Film: The Jazz Singer	The Jazz Singer. Directed by Alan Crosland. 1927. Please see readings for Ses #10-11.
13	Film: The Jazz Singer (cont.) Discussion	The Jazz Singer. Directed by Alan Crosland. 1927. Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side, 1890-1925. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 1985, pp. 207-224. ISBN: 9780853456827. Ross, Steven J. Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 1-33. ISBN: 9780691032344.
The Lower East Side
14	Lecture: Remembering Ethnicity in an Age of Multiculturalism	Diner, Hasia R. Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, begin reading. ISBN: 9780691007472.
15	Discussion	Diner, Hasia R. Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, finish reading. ISBN: 9780691007472.
	Trip to New York City	Lower East Side Tenement Museum Museum of the Chinese in America Zagat Restaurant Guide National Museum of the American Indian African Burial Ground, New York City Five Points: Urban Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century New York Museum of Jewish Heritage
Part 2: Now
The “New” Immigration
16	Lecture and Discussion: What’s New about “New Immigration”?	Daniels, Roger. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2004, pp. 129-268. ISBN: 9780809053438. The reading is incredibly informative but a little dry. For the purposes of our discussion, you might want to read pp. 219-268 first and then read the other chapters later.
17	Film: The New Los Angeles Brainstorming for Collaborative Research Project	The New Los Angeles. Directed by Lyn Goldfarb. Part 3, California and the American Dream. 2005. (no readings)
Manila/Chicago
18	Lecture: American Imperialism and Filipino/a Experience	Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 1-57. ISBN: 9780822330899.
19	Discussion	Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 93-192. ISBN: 9780822330899.
Collaborative Research Project: U.S. - Mexico Border Relations
20-21	Discussion	Skerry, Peter. “How Not to Build a Fence.” Foreign Policy (September/October 2006). The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras Binder, Norman E., J. L. Polinard, and Robert D. Wrinkle. “Mexican American and Anglo Attitudes Toward Immigration Reform: A View From the Border.” Social Science Quarterly 78 (1997): 324-337. “U.S. - Mexico Relations.” CQ Researcher (November 2001): 11-29. “Illegal Immigration.” CQ Researcher (May 2005): 15-17. This includes a summary of what we know about whether migration is keeping down wages in the U.S. “Policing the Borders.” CQ Researcher (February 2002): 12-7. This is mostly about homeland security and terrorism, but could be useful for us generally. Migrant Photos and Minutemen Photos from the Border Film Project U.S. Customs and Border Protection Optional: Arizona Border Watch Recommended: U.S. - Mexico Border Issues (PDF) from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Collections
22	Guest Lecturer: Raúl Rubio on the Cuban-American Experience	Rubio, Raúl. “Discourses of/on Nostalgia: Cuban America’s Real and Fictional Geographies.” Letras Hispanas 3, no. 1 (Spring 2006). ———. “Materializing Havana and Revolution: Cuban Material Culture.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 24, no. 24 (2005):161-177. Watson, Bruce. Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream. New York, NY: Viking, 2005, pp. 241-258. ISBN: 9780670033973.
23	Lawrence	D’Ambrosio. Paul S. Ralph Fasanella’s America. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2001. ISBN: 9780917334269.
24	Paper Meetings	(no readings)
25	Student Presentations on U.S.-Mexico Border Relations	(no readings)
Conclusion
26	Film: My Big Fat Greek Wedding	My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Directed by Joel Swick. 2002. (no readings)