Topic: Immigrant Experience
Order Description
This paper is on the immigrant experience in the US between Reconstruction and the First World War. We are reading a book on this subject this week, The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves. In addition, this week you are to read some excerpts from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Chapters 2-4, 6, 9-10), which Sinclair wrote to highlight the plight of immigrants. These two works will give you a solid overview of the immigrant experience in the US as they represent a range of experiences (some good, some bad) as well as geographical and occupational variety. You should use both of these works in your paper. You are free to use additional resources (as long as they are academic sources), but you are not required to do so. Your textbook is also a great place to get some background information as your starting point.
Some questions you should consider as you begin this paper (these are merely a starting point for you, not an exhaustive list): What were some of the difficulties immigrants faced? What support was available for them in the US? How was their experience different from people already in the US? How was what they thought of America different from what they found?
Text book:
Holt, Hamilton, The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves, Expanded Edition. Routledge. 2000. ISBN: 0-415-92510-X.