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City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York
A defining American story of millions of immigrants, hundreds of languages, and one great city
New York has been America's city of immigrants for nearly four centuries. Growing from Peter Minuit's tiny settlement of 1626 to one with more than three million immigrants today, the city has always been a magnet for transplants from all over the globe. It is only fitting that the United States, a "nation of immigrants," is home to the only world city built primarily by immigration. More immigrants have entered the United States through New York than through all other entry points combined, making New York's immigrant saga a quintessentially American story.
City of Dreams is the long-overdue, inspiring, and defining account of New York's both famous and forgotten the young man from the Caribbean who relocated to New York and became a Founding Father; an Italian immigrant who toiled for years at railroad track maintenance before achieving his dream of becoming a nationally renowned poet; Russian-born Emma Goldman, who condoned the murder of American industrialists as a means of aiding downtrodden workers; Dominican immigrant Oscar de la Renta, who dressed first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama. Over ten years in the making, Tyler Anbinder's story is one of innovators and artists, revolutionaries and rioters, staggering deprivation and soaring triumphs. Today's immigrants are really no different from those who have come to America in centuries past—and their story has never before been told with such breadth of scope, lavish research, and resounding spirit.
New York has been America's city of immigrants for nearly four centuries. Growing from Peter Minuit's tiny settlement of 1626 to one with more than three million immigrants today, the city has always been a magnet for transplants from all over the globe. It is only fitting that the United States, a "nation of immigrants," is home to the only world city built primarily by immigration. More immigrants have entered the United States through New York than through all other entry points combined, making New York's immigrant saga a quintessentially American story.
City of Dreams is the long-overdue, inspiring, and defining account of New York's both famous and forgotten the young man from the Caribbean who relocated to New York and became a Founding Father; an Italian immigrant who toiled for years at railroad track maintenance before achieving his dream of becoming a nationally renowned poet; Russian-born Emma Goldman, who condoned the murder of American industrialists as a means of aiding downtrodden workers; Dominican immigrant Oscar de la Renta, who dressed first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama. Over ten years in the making, Tyler Anbinder's story is one of innovators and artists, revolutionaries and rioters, staggering deprivation and soaring triumphs. Today's immigrants are really no different from those who have come to America in centuries past—and their story has never before been told with such breadth of scope, lavish research, and resounding spirit.
768 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2016
About the author
Tyler Anbinder
10 books62 followersTyler Anbinder is an Associate Professor of History at George Washington University. His first book, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850's, was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book and the winner of the Avery Craven Prize of the Organization of American Historians. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.
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August 21, 2022
Anbinder recounts the experiences of major immigration groups through New York City’s 400-year history. Starting with the Dutch settlers he covers the English, Scot, Irish, German, East European, Italian and up to modern day Caribbean, West Indian and Chinese immigrants. He fills us in on why they left, the risks of getting to NYC, where they lived, the conditions they lived in, the conflicts they faced, the jobs they took, their politics, how they assimilated and moved on to be replaced by the next group in an endless cycle that still persists. He makes the book very readable embedding personal details of individual immigrants throughout. He profiles many of them including the famous such as Peter Stuyvesant, Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Aster and Oscar de la Renta as well as many less well known. We get an enlightening historical perspective on the immigration issues that convulse America today. My notes follow.
“We found beautiful rivers, bubbling fountains flowing down into the valleys…fruits in the woods, such as strawberries, pigeon berries…wild grapes…chestnuts, plums, hazelnuts.” writes one of the first Europeans to live in New Amsterdam. Facing religious persecution, thirty Walloons, French speaking Protestants, became the first settlers in 1624. New Amsterdam, while predominantly Dutch attracted people from many countries and religions including free blacks and black slaves. The fur trade was the primary business although brewing and tavern keeping were important. Drinking was very popular. By 1657 two thousand people lived there in three hundred houses. 18 different languages were spoken. It was already a diverse community in the New York tradition. That year the first written protest in the Americas for religious freedom known as the Flushing Remonstrance addressed the harsh treatment of Quakers. It noted that the Netherlands offered “love, peace and libertie” even to “Jewes, Turkes and Egyptians.”
The English took over in 1664 renaming the colony New York. By 1695, 95% of the Dutch residents had been born in America. The English brought in many Scots and Scots Irish. Diversity of religions expanded, and the Dutch language remained in widespread use until the early eighteenth century by which time the anglicization policy had succeeded. But the largely Scot Presbyterian immigrants would not be loyal to the Crown. These immigrants came not for religious freedom, but economic opportunity. By 1730, most male New Yorkers were tradesmen. In 1735, Peter Zinger was tried for publishing news critical of the Crown’s appointed governor. A jury set him free. It set a precedent in the fight for freedom of the press and freedom from British rule. An American identity was developing.
Little immigration took place during the Revolutionary War. It picked up significantly after England’s war with France in 1815. When prominent citizen William Duer arrived in 1783, NYC was a town of 20,000, when he died in 1858 it was a teeming city of 800,000. In 1860 NYC was the fourth largest city in the world. The Manhattan lakes, streams, hills and woods of 1783 were filled, leveled and cut to make way for densely populated tenements filled by Irish Catholics escaping starvation. The notorious Five Points neighborhood was built over a spring fed lake that had been filled in. Moisture continually seeped into the homes. While heavily Irish Catholic, Five Points was a mélange of different peoples. Pigs roamed the streets eating garbage. There was no garbage service and it was the cheapest way to feed them.
The Irish Potato Famine led to massive emigration from 1847-54. 2.1 million out of 8 million living in Ireland left by the end of the 1850’s. 1.5 million went to the U.S. of which 950,000 went to New York. Stuffed into steerage on sailing vessels these already devastated people suffered inhuman conditions often catching typhus or cholera. Many died on the way. Once ships landed in New York immigrants were met by “runners” who would swindle and steal whatever they had left. Very few Irish men had skills so they became laborers working 10-hour days six days a week weather permitting. Mid-winter found these laborers unemployed. In 1860 98% of laborers in New York were immigrants and 88% of them were Irish born. Two-thirds of working Irish women became domestic servants. 70% of domestic service jobs were held by Irish Immigrants.
Immigration from the German states increased dramatically starting in 1851. 177,000 landed in New York in one year, 1854. In 1860, 120,000, 23% of NYC’s adult population, were born in a German state. Like the Irish the Germans had their own neighborhoods typically subdivided by the locality the residents originated from. The residents of “Kleindeutschland” lived in tenements little better than the Irish. Living conditions for both were abysmal. The worst Irish areas were more densely packed than any in the modern world save the slums of Mumbai, Nairobi and Dhaka. The typical five story tenement was in horrible condition and had no running water. Apartments were only 225 square feet total for an entire family and many took in borders. Amazingly, most immigrants felt better off than they had been in Ireland or a German state! In 1860, 69% of all NYC residents over 21 were foreign born.
The great immigrant deluge led to nativist activism including the Know Nothings. The Know Nothings wanted to prohibit Catholics and immigrants from public office. Schools, which all taught the King James Bible, were a big issue. Catholics wanted their own supported by their taxes. Poet Walt Whitman expressed the Protestant backlash calling Catholic leaders “these dregs of foreign filth…refuse of convents…foreign riffraff”. Protestants pushed temperance laws which united German and Catholic immigrants. Abolitionism was opposed by Catholic leaders saying it would tear the country apart. But when it did after Fort Sumter, German and Irish immigrants stood fast with the Union and volunteered in droves because they valued their new country and wanted it to stay together. Many German and Irish units were formed and were heavily involved in the major battles. Many were casualties.
When Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation went into effect, Irish Catholics went on a rampage. The Irish American lamented the “Abolition agitation” by “N_____ propagandists” which the newspaper touted as the war’s “primary cause.” Anbinder holds the real issue wasn’t fear of losing jobs to blacks, but rather fear that as the weekly Day Book put it, emancipation meant “equality as a soldier…equality at the ballot box, equality everywhere” thus poor whites would be ”degraded to a level with Negroes.” When conscription was instituted in July 1863, a full-scale riot broke out in the city. It lasted four days. Buildings burned, homes plundered, businesses looted, rail lines torn up, telegraph wires cut, barricades erected, blacks beaten and lynched, and a 500-bed orphanage for black children burned to the ground. Thousands of predominantly Irish Catholics took part. Troops were called in to bring order. However, very few immigrants ended up being drafted. Many got exemptions, others lied about their status and others got the commutation fee paid by the city at Boss Tweed’s direction.
The Protestant Irish – Catholic Irish bitterness erupted again in 1870. A Protestant Irish group, the Orangemen paraded singing century old anti-Catholic songs with signs celebrating Protestant victories in the Williamite war 180 years prior in Ireland. Irish Catholics fumed and they began shooting. Both sides were armed. Eight people died. The Orangemen paraded again in 1871. Thousands of Irish Catholics were waiting. This time the Sun reported “The street literally ran with blood…You had to pick your way among the corpses.” Young girls were firing down on the parade from upper windows. The Orangemen returned fire. The militia had to fire into the crowd to disperse it.
Following the war German and Irish immigrants steadily became a lesser percentage of immigrants to New York, dropping to 53% in 1875 and to 22% by 1895. Italians and East European Jews soon greatly outnumbered them. Most Italians came from southern Italy where they were facing starvation. They could not make ends meet on small plots of land owned by the wealthy. East European Jews faced pogroms in Russia and severe discrimination limiting any opportunity to get ahead.
The U.S. began restricting immigration in 1875 and successive laws increased the restrictions. Medical exams, mental tests, and eventually literacy tests and money requirements were prescribed. The vast majority of immigrants passed these tests. The shipping companies prescreened passengers to avoid the expense of returning them. Chinese laborers were singled out to be specifically denied admittance. In 1892 Ellis Island opened up. Many millions would pour through. Anbinder goes into detail about how the processing operations worked and evolved. Aid societies were set up to help each ethnic group. Twentieth century NYC was far different from what the immigrants were used to. Often the male head of family had preceded his wife and children and would send for them years later. To keep him from being disappointed in his wife, some aid societies would provide the just arrived wife with new American clothes since he would already be used to fashionably dressed New York women.
Each ethnic group settled in its own enclaves or neighborhoods. The Lower East Side, which had been Kleindeutchland, gave way to new immigrants, particularly the large number of Russian Jews. In 1910 the Lower East Side with its packed tenements was three times as densely populated as the most densely part of NYC now (Upper East Side). Antebellum tenements still survived and newer ones were no better with tiny rooms, practically no ventilation, suffocating heat in summer, cold in winter, a cacophony of neighborhood sounds and malodorous smells. The largest percentage of Jews worked in the garment industry, working incredibly long hours for little pay. Second was retail including street peddling. Very few made it into professional disciplines. By 1920 NYC had 1.6 million Jews. Most left the Lower East Side. Some moved to Harlem, 75% lived in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
In the two decades before WWI more immigrants arrived from Italy than any other country. Italians settled in a contiguous area from Five Points to Washington square including Soho and West Village and Harlem. They were densely packed into the same squalid tenements as other poor immigrants. Two families often shared one tiny three-room apartment. As late as 1935 67% of those in Italian East Harlem had no shower or bath, 83% no heat except from their stove, 55% with no indoor toilets. The men found work in construction and as day laborers which paid little and they often had to pay fees to Padrones who got them jobs. Italians were taking over jobs the Irish were leaving. Some made it as barbers, tailors or retailers. Italian women entered the garment industry working alongside Jewish women in sweatshops or at home with their children. Many families at home made items such as artificial flowers for contractors.
Jacob Riis who “as the first muckraking journalist of the Progressive era and the first documentary photographer” brought to America’s attention the horrid conditions of NYC’s tenements. His 1890 book How the Other Half Lives was widely read focusing attention on the problem and along with his journalism was instrumental in 1901 reform legislation. Settlement houses sprang up to aid poor immigrants. Prominent was Henry Street Settlement House (still operating) founded in 1895 by nurse Lillian Wald, a leading reformer. Anbinder also covers labor organizing including the ladies garment workers union and strike, the tragic Triangle Fire in 1911 and socialist advocate Emma Goldman.
Racists took to the yellow press to label South and East Europeans as inferior, dirty and criminals. With WWI the loyalty of German immigrants was attacked. Jewish immigrants such as Emma Goldman embracing socialist politics brought suspicion on Jewish immigrants especially after the Bolshevik takeover in Russia and the Red Scare of 1919-20. The result was the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 which cut eastern and southern European immigration by 80% leaving northern European immigration untouched. The National Origins Act passed in 1924 cut all but northern European immigration to a trickle, Italy 5,800 per year 98% less than pre-WWI and Russia 2,700 per year 99% less than pre-WWI.
Immigration restrictions prompted a huge increase in illegal immigration using all the methods we see today. Prohibition helped since the borders were regularly being penetrated already to bring in alcohol. The precipitous decline in immigration opened up opportunity for blacks who moved to Harlem taking jobs immigrants would have taken. Caribbean peoples including Puerto Ricans (American citizens) moved into Harlem and Brooklyn. Ethnic groups were always shifting their neighborhoods as new groups moved in and established ones moved up. As always there was animosity between the new and established groups. The Great Depression led to a dramatic decline in immigration which revived as WWII approached with people desperate to escape the Nazis.
A 1976 adjustment to quotas placed the first restrictions on Mexican immigration. Before, Mexican labor moved freely back and forth across the border for work, but now they were afraid to leave the U.S. fearing they might not be able to return. Thus began the Mexican illegal immigration problem. The 1970s and 80s saw a large increase in Dominican immigration to NYC followed by a similar increase in Chinese, West Indian (Jamaican, Haitian, Guyanese), and Ecuadorian immigration in the 80s and 90s. In 2014 NYC had 3,160,000 resident immigrants: 402,000 from the Dominican Republic, 389,000 from China, 187,000 from Mexico, 175,000 from Jamaica, 143,000 from Guyana, 138,000 from Ecuador, 88,000 from Haiti and… Anbinder lays out the neighborhoods of these groups and the shifts of prior groups as he did for all their predecessors. He also profiles many individuals as he did throughout the book. The cycle repeats and little changes. Each new group is disparaged as it has been since the Dutch ostracized the Lutherans and Quakers four centuries earlier.
“We found beautiful rivers, bubbling fountains flowing down into the valleys…fruits in the woods, such as strawberries, pigeon berries…wild grapes…chestnuts, plums, hazelnuts.” writes one of the first Europeans to live in New Amsterdam. Facing religious persecution, thirty Walloons, French speaking Protestants, became the first settlers in 1624. New Amsterdam, while predominantly Dutch attracted people from many countries and religions including free blacks and black slaves. The fur trade was the primary business although brewing and tavern keeping were important. Drinking was very popular. By 1657 two thousand people lived there in three hundred houses. 18 different languages were spoken. It was already a diverse community in the New York tradition. That year the first written protest in the Americas for religious freedom known as the Flushing Remonstrance addressed the harsh treatment of Quakers. It noted that the Netherlands offered “love, peace and libertie” even to “Jewes, Turkes and Egyptians.”
The English took over in 1664 renaming the colony New York. By 1695, 95% of the Dutch residents had been born in America. The English brought in many Scots and Scots Irish. Diversity of religions expanded, and the Dutch language remained in widespread use until the early eighteenth century by which time the anglicization policy had succeeded. But the largely Scot Presbyterian immigrants would not be loyal to the Crown. These immigrants came not for religious freedom, but economic opportunity. By 1730, most male New Yorkers were tradesmen. In 1735, Peter Zinger was tried for publishing news critical of the Crown’s appointed governor. A jury set him free. It set a precedent in the fight for freedom of the press and freedom from British rule. An American identity was developing.
Little immigration took place during the Revolutionary War. It picked up significantly after England’s war with France in 1815. When prominent citizen William Duer arrived in 1783, NYC was a town of 20,000, when he died in 1858 it was a teeming city of 800,000. In 1860 NYC was the fourth largest city in the world. The Manhattan lakes, streams, hills and woods of 1783 were filled, leveled and cut to make way for densely populated tenements filled by Irish Catholics escaping starvation. The notorious Five Points neighborhood was built over a spring fed lake that had been filled in. Moisture continually seeped into the homes. While heavily Irish Catholic, Five Points was a mélange of different peoples. Pigs roamed the streets eating garbage. There was no garbage service and it was the cheapest way to feed them.
The Irish Potato Famine led to massive emigration from 1847-54. 2.1 million out of 8 million living in Ireland left by the end of the 1850’s. 1.5 million went to the U.S. of which 950,000 went to New York. Stuffed into steerage on sailing vessels these already devastated people suffered inhuman conditions often catching typhus or cholera. Many died on the way. Once ships landed in New York immigrants were met by “runners” who would swindle and steal whatever they had left. Very few Irish men had skills so they became laborers working 10-hour days six days a week weather permitting. Mid-winter found these laborers unemployed. In 1860 98% of laborers in New York were immigrants and 88% of them were Irish born. Two-thirds of working Irish women became domestic servants. 70% of domestic service jobs were held by Irish Immigrants.
Immigration from the German states increased dramatically starting in 1851. 177,000 landed in New York in one year, 1854. In 1860, 120,000, 23% of NYC’s adult population, were born in a German state. Like the Irish the Germans had their own neighborhoods typically subdivided by the locality the residents originated from. The residents of “Kleindeutschland” lived in tenements little better than the Irish. Living conditions for both were abysmal. The worst Irish areas were more densely packed than any in the modern world save the slums of Mumbai, Nairobi and Dhaka. The typical five story tenement was in horrible condition and had no running water. Apartments were only 225 square feet total for an entire family and many took in borders. Amazingly, most immigrants felt better off than they had been in Ireland or a German state! In 1860, 69% of all NYC residents over 21 were foreign born.
The great immigrant deluge led to nativist activism including the Know Nothings. The Know Nothings wanted to prohibit Catholics and immigrants from public office. Schools, which all taught the King James Bible, were a big issue. Catholics wanted their own supported by their taxes. Poet Walt Whitman expressed the Protestant backlash calling Catholic leaders “these dregs of foreign filth…refuse of convents…foreign riffraff”. Protestants pushed temperance laws which united German and Catholic immigrants. Abolitionism was opposed by Catholic leaders saying it would tear the country apart. But when it did after Fort Sumter, German and Irish immigrants stood fast with the Union and volunteered in droves because they valued their new country and wanted it to stay together. Many German and Irish units were formed and were heavily involved in the major battles. Many were casualties.
When Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation went into effect, Irish Catholics went on a rampage. The Irish American lamented the “Abolition agitation” by “N_____ propagandists” which the newspaper touted as the war’s “primary cause.” Anbinder holds the real issue wasn’t fear of losing jobs to blacks, but rather fear that as the weekly Day Book put it, emancipation meant “equality as a soldier…equality at the ballot box, equality everywhere” thus poor whites would be ”degraded to a level with Negroes.” When conscription was instituted in July 1863, a full-scale riot broke out in the city. It lasted four days. Buildings burned, homes plundered, businesses looted, rail lines torn up, telegraph wires cut, barricades erected, blacks beaten and lynched, and a 500-bed orphanage for black children burned to the ground. Thousands of predominantly Irish Catholics took part. Troops were called in to bring order. However, very few immigrants ended up being drafted. Many got exemptions, others lied about their status and others got the commutation fee paid by the city at Boss Tweed’s direction.
The Protestant Irish – Catholic Irish bitterness erupted again in 1870. A Protestant Irish group, the Orangemen paraded singing century old anti-Catholic songs with signs celebrating Protestant victories in the Williamite war 180 years prior in Ireland. Irish Catholics fumed and they began shooting. Both sides were armed. Eight people died. The Orangemen paraded again in 1871. Thousands of Irish Catholics were waiting. This time the Sun reported “The street literally ran with blood…You had to pick your way among the corpses.” Young girls were firing down on the parade from upper windows. The Orangemen returned fire. The militia had to fire into the crowd to disperse it.
Following the war German and Irish immigrants steadily became a lesser percentage of immigrants to New York, dropping to 53% in 1875 and to 22% by 1895. Italians and East European Jews soon greatly outnumbered them. Most Italians came from southern Italy where they were facing starvation. They could not make ends meet on small plots of land owned by the wealthy. East European Jews faced pogroms in Russia and severe discrimination limiting any opportunity to get ahead.
The U.S. began restricting immigration in 1875 and successive laws increased the restrictions. Medical exams, mental tests, and eventually literacy tests and money requirements were prescribed. The vast majority of immigrants passed these tests. The shipping companies prescreened passengers to avoid the expense of returning them. Chinese laborers were singled out to be specifically denied admittance. In 1892 Ellis Island opened up. Many millions would pour through. Anbinder goes into detail about how the processing operations worked and evolved. Aid societies were set up to help each ethnic group. Twentieth century NYC was far different from what the immigrants were used to. Often the male head of family had preceded his wife and children and would send for them years later. To keep him from being disappointed in his wife, some aid societies would provide the just arrived wife with new American clothes since he would already be used to fashionably dressed New York women.
Each ethnic group settled in its own enclaves or neighborhoods. The Lower East Side, which had been Kleindeutchland, gave way to new immigrants, particularly the large number of Russian Jews. In 1910 the Lower East Side with its packed tenements was three times as densely populated as the most densely part of NYC now (Upper East Side). Antebellum tenements still survived and newer ones were no better with tiny rooms, practically no ventilation, suffocating heat in summer, cold in winter, a cacophony of neighborhood sounds and malodorous smells. The largest percentage of Jews worked in the garment industry, working incredibly long hours for little pay. Second was retail including street peddling. Very few made it into professional disciplines. By 1920 NYC had 1.6 million Jews. Most left the Lower East Side. Some moved to Harlem, 75% lived in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
In the two decades before WWI more immigrants arrived from Italy than any other country. Italians settled in a contiguous area from Five Points to Washington square including Soho and West Village and Harlem. They were densely packed into the same squalid tenements as other poor immigrants. Two families often shared one tiny three-room apartment. As late as 1935 67% of those in Italian East Harlem had no shower or bath, 83% no heat except from their stove, 55% with no indoor toilets. The men found work in construction and as day laborers which paid little and they often had to pay fees to Padrones who got them jobs. Italians were taking over jobs the Irish were leaving. Some made it as barbers, tailors or retailers. Italian women entered the garment industry working alongside Jewish women in sweatshops or at home with their children. Many families at home made items such as artificial flowers for contractors.
Jacob Riis who “as the first muckraking journalist of the Progressive era and the first documentary photographer” brought to America’s attention the horrid conditions of NYC’s tenements. His 1890 book How the Other Half Lives was widely read focusing attention on the problem and along with his journalism was instrumental in 1901 reform legislation. Settlement houses sprang up to aid poor immigrants. Prominent was Henry Street Settlement House (still operating) founded in 1895 by nurse Lillian Wald, a leading reformer. Anbinder also covers labor organizing including the ladies garment workers union and strike, the tragic Triangle Fire in 1911 and socialist advocate Emma Goldman.
Racists took to the yellow press to label South and East Europeans as inferior, dirty and criminals. With WWI the loyalty of German immigrants was attacked. Jewish immigrants such as Emma Goldman embracing socialist politics brought suspicion on Jewish immigrants especially after the Bolshevik takeover in Russia and the Red Scare of 1919-20. The result was the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 which cut eastern and southern European immigration by 80% leaving northern European immigration untouched. The National Origins Act passed in 1924 cut all but northern European immigration to a trickle, Italy 5,800 per year 98% less than pre-WWI and Russia 2,700 per year 99% less than pre-WWI.
Immigration restrictions prompted a huge increase in illegal immigration using all the methods we see today. Prohibition helped since the borders were regularly being penetrated already to bring in alcohol. The precipitous decline in immigration opened up opportunity for blacks who moved to Harlem taking jobs immigrants would have taken. Caribbean peoples including Puerto Ricans (American citizens) moved into Harlem and Brooklyn. Ethnic groups were always shifting their neighborhoods as new groups moved in and established ones moved up. As always there was animosity between the new and established groups. The Great Depression led to a dramatic decline in immigration which revived as WWII approached with people desperate to escape the Nazis.
A 1976 adjustment to quotas placed the first restrictions on Mexican immigration. Before, Mexican labor moved freely back and forth across the border for work, but now they were afraid to leave the U.S. fearing they might not be able to return. Thus began the Mexican illegal immigration problem. The 1970s and 80s saw a large increase in Dominican immigration to NYC followed by a similar increase in Chinese, West Indian (Jamaican, Haitian, Guyanese), and Ecuadorian immigration in the 80s and 90s. In 2014 NYC had 3,160,000 resident immigrants: 402,000 from the Dominican Republic, 389,000 from China, 187,000 from Mexico, 175,000 from Jamaica, 143,000 from Guyana, 138,000 from Ecuador, 88,000 from Haiti and… Anbinder lays out the neighborhoods of these groups and the shifts of prior groups as he did for all their predecessors. He also profiles many individuals as he did throughout the book. The cycle repeats and little changes. Each new group is disparaged as it has been since the Dutch ostracized the Lutherans and Quakers four centuries earlier.
October 10, 2016
History professor Anbinder, himself a native of New York, traces the waves of immigrants that have built NYC into the behemoth it is today. From Peter Minuit and his deal with the Native Americans to today, the author follows wave after wave of immigrants and how they shaped the city. From the Puritans and fur traders to huge waves of German and Irish immigrants to the Italians, eastern Europeans, Asians, former slaves, South and Central American, and West Indies, all the big movements of people are here. It’s a fascinating read; every wave of people came over hoping for more opportunity and a new life. Nearly all faced prejudice of the already ensconced people, horrible living conditions, and endless hard work. They bore this steadfastly, all in the hope that their children would have better lives than they had.
This is not your boring history book. Anbinder frequently uses personal accounts to bring vivid life to the past. While this is a massive book- nearly 600 pages with another 100 of end notes, bibliography, appendices, and index- it was as gripping as a well-written novel. Here’s the Irish fleeing the famine, arriving as stick figures. Here are the people trying to take advantage of new immigrants. There were some parts that were less interesting to me- the section on the Civil War, for instance, because I never find war interesting- even those I read every word of. That is a first for me; I tend to skip the bits about fighting.
Every wave of immigrants seemed to follow the same routine: take the first jobs they could get, always the things natives (and previous immigrants) had risen above. They work 7 days a week (except for the Jews, who mostly didn’t work on the Sabbath). They live in cramped quarters. As soon as they can save the money, they start a business of their own. They also send amazing amounts of money back to their home countries, whether it be to support parents or to bring over other family members. They become citizens as fast as possible most of the time, unless they are hoping to make enough money to have a business in their home country. They almost always dislike the next wave of immigrants, feeling that next wave has a criminal element to it. Humans have remained the same for the 400 year span of NYC; they are filled with prejudice.
Excellent book; should be required reading. It’ll enlighten a lot of folks who want to build a wall.
This is not your boring history book. Anbinder frequently uses personal accounts to bring vivid life to the past. While this is a massive book- nearly 600 pages with another 100 of end notes, bibliography, appendices, and index- it was as gripping as a well-written novel. Here’s the Irish fleeing the famine, arriving as stick figures. Here are the people trying to take advantage of new immigrants. There were some parts that were less interesting to me- the section on the Civil War, for instance, because I never find war interesting- even those I read every word of. That is a first for me; I tend to skip the bits about fighting.
Every wave of immigrants seemed to follow the same routine: take the first jobs they could get, always the things natives (and previous immigrants) had risen above. They work 7 days a week (except for the Jews, who mostly didn’t work on the Sabbath). They live in cramped quarters. As soon as they can save the money, they start a business of their own. They also send amazing amounts of money back to their home countries, whether it be to support parents or to bring over other family members. They become citizens as fast as possible most of the time, unless they are hoping to make enough money to have a business in their home country. They almost always dislike the next wave of immigrants, feeling that next wave has a criminal element to it. Humans have remained the same for the 400 year span of NYC; they are filled with prejudice.
Excellent book; should be required reading. It’ll enlighten a lot of folks who want to build a wall.
October 29, 2016
If I may be so bold, this is the best work of history published so far in 2016. Before I get into exactly why, let me first acknowledge that when large-scale tomes like this emerge, reviewers frequently cart out the trite adjectives of, "magisterial, hugely-ambitious, all-encompassing, sweeping," and the like. Now, regrettably for my own originality, I have to say that every one of those applies to Tyler Anbinder's history of the effect of immigration in the founding and thriving of the greatest city in the world, New York. This is such a gigantic achievement that I really can only sum up its particular importance in a couple of ways, you simply have to read it to experience its impact. You are genuinely taken from NYC's founding from Peter Minuit's tiny settlement through every major wave of immigration through the post 9/11 era in stunning detail and deeply felt prose. First of all, Anbinder achieves what few historians achieve in large-scale works like this, that being the delicate balance between the personal narrative of a few representative characters which add a human dimension to the work, while at the same time providing the large-scale statistics and historical analyses that transcend the personal and accurately describe the paradigmatic shifts of their subject, in this case the relationship of immigration rates of various foreign countries to the culture, industry, and politics of NYC. Second, Anbinder effectively uses this history of New York to make several larger points on American immigration and to thus make you reconsider several recent issues of immigration that for some reason we have felt could be summed up by one click-bait author on some vacuous blog. Never being cheaply political or insipidly, "fair and balanced," Anbinder shows the numerous sides (yes there are more than two) to any discussions of this issue and the necessary historical understanding for those discussions to have any merit. It is based on those two achievements that I would say Anbinder has written the historical book of the year. However, to describe the overall impact of the book, what you are left with after completing this great work is a personal and national understanding of immigration in the greatest city in the world told with an erudite and deft balance of fact and feeling. Brilliant, everyone needs to read this.
April 8, 2023
City of Dreams provides an interesting overview of the immigrant experience in what is now New York City. Although nominally covering 400 years of history, readers may be surprised at how much of the book is devoted to the early settlers of New Amsterdam and pre-revolutionary New York. By contrast, post 1930 arrivals are covered in only the last 10% of the work. Anbinder's narrative is generally strong, peaking when it profiles specific individuals and ebbing when rattling off long sets of statistics about immigrant groups. On balance, almost anyone interested in how newcomers lived and assimilated in the Big Apple will find this a worthwhile read.
September 12, 2016
This is a highly readable book, but I still think most books over 400 pages are too long. Thus, for that reason, along with the fact I've read lots and lots about immigrants in New York, I focused intently on what topics interested me the most and skimmed the rest. Tyler Anbinder is an excellent historian and a very likable one, in my opinion. He knew how to pick and choose stories and individuals that would make this book come alive; and gave equal attention to women immigrants, unlike other books that seem to always focus mostly on men. He also appeared to be trying to prove that the United States can and always has accommodated thousands and thousands of immigrants, both legal and illegal. That's truly astounding, too, but left me a bit overwhelmed by it all at the end. Others may be quite proud and happy to be a part of New York City, but I'm happy I don't live there. There's just too many people. Not too many people of too many ethnic groups, just too many people, period.
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.)
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.)
June 26, 2023
Received as a gift so I'm already partial but I certainly enjoyed reading this. A brief but very readable survey of New York immigration. A lot of the problems I might otherwise have had with the book were qualified by the author in the introduction (especially the extreme brevity of the treatment of post-1960 immigration).
A lot of the book is familiar ground, but it's told well and I learned a decent amount through it. Also appreciated the throughlines the author chooses to draw out and the traced evolution of the different backgrounds and communities throughout. I think the book is at its best during the most well-covered era of tenements and the settlement of the Lower East Side and Little Italy. It pretty consistently does a good job at outlining various communities, first in Manhattan and then throughout the boroughs. Quite good overall.
A lot of the book is familiar ground, but it's told well and I learned a decent amount through it. Also appreciated the throughlines the author chooses to draw out and the traced evolution of the different backgrounds and communities throughout. I think the book is at its best during the most well-covered era of tenements and the settlement of the Lower East Side and Little Italy. It pretty consistently does a good job at outlining various communities, first in Manhattan and then throughout the boroughs. Quite good overall.
June 21, 2021
I only picked up this book because I was interested in the early history of New York, so this review is for the book through the Irish potato famine, where I stopped reading. Really interesting, enjoyable book. I find it so fascinating how Manhattan was originally settled by Europeans, how they worked with the natives and then against them, how sometimes people settled there because a company asked them to and sometimes for more personal reasons, I find it all so compelling. The author does a good job of bringing this early history to life, I only wish it could have been given more detail, though I understand there aren't exactly a ton of primary sources for the Dutch period. It was just so engrossing I'd have loved more.
January 21, 2020
(4.5 stars)
This is a fascinating and remarkably well-researched work detailing the history of immigration to, and the lives of immigrants in, New York City. Tyler Anbinder's book is long - I got the feeling that he easily could have written another 500 pages or so but for his editors' pleading to keep it to a semi-manageable length. But he effectively mixes an amazing amount of factual detail (numbers of immigrants per decade, with percentages broken down by country of origin, descriptions of geographic concentrations of different ethnic groups in different parts of the city, etc.) with compelling stories of the immigrants themselves -- sometimes at an individual level, and sometimes in more generalized descriptions of the places and conditions (usually, incredibly crowded and squalid) in which they lived.
Anbinder has chosen to focus on the largest groups of immigrants at different periods in New York's history: the Dutch and the English and Scots in the pre-Revolutionary period, the Irish and the Germans in the pre-Civil war period, the Italians and Eastern European Jews in the late 19th-early 20th century, and the Chinese and Caribbean immigrants in the contemporary era. So the book is not an utterly exhaustive survey of all the notable immigrant groups that have come to New York, but it paints an impressively detailed and sweeping picture of the history of the city and the role that immigration has played in that history.
As someone who was born and raised in New York City and whose grandparents were immigrants, I not only accepted, but at an early age essentially took as an article of faith that immigration was THE story of America -- that the core of American identity was not ethnicity or religion but a commitment to the values, opportunities, and freedoms that made America a beacon for oppressed people around the world. In other words, as a grade school boy I bought the whole Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island/huddled masses/melting pot mythology hook, line, and sinker. So of course as I've gotten older I've become increasingly dismayed (or disillusioned, in the sense of having my illusions challenged by reality) by the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country over the past couple of decades, culminating in the horrible policies of the current administration.
Obviously, Tyler Anbinder also believes immigration is a key component of the American story. But his book doesn't sanitize the history of these immigrants. While our borders formerly were more open than they are now, there was never a golden age in which immigrants of different ethnicities were welcomed to our shores with open arms. Anbinder shows that every wave of new ethnic immigrants has been met with met with suspicion and hostility by "natives," who looked down on the newcomers, regarding them often as barely human and always as un-American. Then, once that group became more established and assimilated after a generation or two, they were equally hostile to the next wave. As Anbinder writes: "From the colonial period to the present, every generation of Americans has viewed the newest group to arrive as completely unlike previous immigrants. The Dutch felt that way about the Lutherans and Quakers. The English belittled the Germans and mistrusted the Irish. The children of the German and Irish immigrants disdained the Italians and Eastern European Jews. Those groups thought that Puerto Ricans were ruining the city, and so on." And throughout, as lowly as they might be, all of the new European immigrant groups at least had the advantage of white skin, which allowed them to feel superior to the city's African-Americans and to opportunistically join in their neighbors' racism.
So for me, Anbinder's book was particularly helpful in de-mythologizing the story of immigration to America. In doing that, it also helped me understand that the most vicious xenophobes of today's politics did not spring out of nowhere but have deep historical roots. It's valuable to know that this type of anti-immigrant sentiment has always been a part of the American story, and yet we've managed to overcome it enough to get to where we are now. I suppose that makes me somewhat less depressed about America today. But not a lot.
This is a fascinating and remarkably well-researched work detailing the history of immigration to, and the lives of immigrants in, New York City. Tyler Anbinder's book is long - I got the feeling that he easily could have written another 500 pages or so but for his editors' pleading to keep it to a semi-manageable length. But he effectively mixes an amazing amount of factual detail (numbers of immigrants per decade, with percentages broken down by country of origin, descriptions of geographic concentrations of different ethnic groups in different parts of the city, etc.) with compelling stories of the immigrants themselves -- sometimes at an individual level, and sometimes in more generalized descriptions of the places and conditions (usually, incredibly crowded and squalid) in which they lived.
Anbinder has chosen to focus on the largest groups of immigrants at different periods in New York's history: the Dutch and the English and Scots in the pre-Revolutionary period, the Irish and the Germans in the pre-Civil war period, the Italians and Eastern European Jews in the late 19th-early 20th century, and the Chinese and Caribbean immigrants in the contemporary era. So the book is not an utterly exhaustive survey of all the notable immigrant groups that have come to New York, but it paints an impressively detailed and sweeping picture of the history of the city and the role that immigration has played in that history.
As someone who was born and raised in New York City and whose grandparents were immigrants, I not only accepted, but at an early age essentially took as an article of faith that immigration was THE story of America -- that the core of American identity was not ethnicity or religion but a commitment to the values, opportunities, and freedoms that made America a beacon for oppressed people around the world. In other words, as a grade school boy I bought the whole Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island/huddled masses/melting pot mythology hook, line, and sinker. So of course as I've gotten older I've become increasingly dismayed (or disillusioned, in the sense of having my illusions challenged by reality) by the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country over the past couple of decades, culminating in the horrible policies of the current administration.
Obviously, Tyler Anbinder also believes immigration is a key component of the American story. But his book doesn't sanitize the history of these immigrants. While our borders formerly were more open than they are now, there was never a golden age in which immigrants of different ethnicities were welcomed to our shores with open arms. Anbinder shows that every wave of new ethnic immigrants has been met with met with suspicion and hostility by "natives," who looked down on the newcomers, regarding them often as barely human and always as un-American. Then, once that group became more established and assimilated after a generation or two, they were equally hostile to the next wave. As Anbinder writes: "From the colonial period to the present, every generation of Americans has viewed the newest group to arrive as completely unlike previous immigrants. The Dutch felt that way about the Lutherans and Quakers. The English belittled the Germans and mistrusted the Irish. The children of the German and Irish immigrants disdained the Italians and Eastern European Jews. Those groups thought that Puerto Ricans were ruining the city, and so on." And throughout, as lowly as they might be, all of the new European immigrant groups at least had the advantage of white skin, which allowed them to feel superior to the city's African-Americans and to opportunistically join in their neighbors' racism.
So for me, Anbinder's book was particularly helpful in de-mythologizing the story of immigration to America. In doing that, it also helped me understand that the most vicious xenophobes of today's politics did not spring out of nowhere but have deep historical roots. It's valuable to know that this type of anti-immigrant sentiment has always been a part of the American story, and yet we've managed to overcome it enough to get to where we are now. I suppose that makes me somewhat less depressed about America today. But not a lot.
May 29, 2021
Very interesting read with a huge sweep, from the founding of the Manhattan colony by the Dutch all the way to the present (it was published in 2016). Anbinder follows a generally chronological track. The early part focuses on New York's initial settlement and its gradual transformation from Dutch to British (though always ethnically mixed), and follows the movement and experience of the Scots and Irish through the late 1700 and early 1800s, to the gigantic influx of Irish in the first half of the 1800s, spurred by events like the potato famine. The description of crossing the Atlantic during this period was fascinating, as well as the Irish neighborhoods like Five Points and the conflicts over Irish integration in New York through experiences like the Civil War and draft riots. The focus then shifts to the Germans in the later 1800s, the Italians and Eastern European Jews in the early 1900s, the founding of Ellis Island, and the the move towards greater restriction on immigration following World War I.
The focus of the last few chapters in more modern times is more expansive, because modern immigration has come from more diversified places, though the Chinese and Caribbean immigration gets the most attention. I was surprised to learn that the largest immigrant group in New York today (or in 2016 at least) is actually Dominicans, as well as what a giant proportion of NYC's current residents are foreign-born.
The focus of the last few chapters in more modern times is more expansive, because modern immigration has come from more diversified places, though the Chinese and Caribbean immigration gets the most attention. I was surprised to learn that the largest immigrant group in New York today (or in 2016 at least) is actually Dominicans, as well as what a giant proportion of NYC's current residents are foreign-born.
August 4, 2020
Tyler Anbinder gives us a remarkable history of 400 years of immigrants in New York City. Many countries sent New York its poor and its social outcasts, and they all wanted new and better lives, if not for themselves, then for their children. The immigrants were seldom readily accepted by non immigrant New Yorkers or even members of other immigrant groups. But all found a section of the city they adapted for themselves and their countrymen. All made New York their own and left an indelible imprint on the City as a whole.
Anbinder gives us a vibrant portrait of the masses that came to different parts of the City from Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Africa and the West Indies. He is at his story telling best when he relates the tales of the Irish, the Chinese and the Jews and their little Italys, Chinatowns, etc. in New York City. But all of his stories of the New York immigrant experience are superb. He wraps up this history in modern times, focusing on the persecutions of Muslims after 9/11.
He gives us all the aspects of the immigrants life -- religion, politics, military service, gang activity, food, jobs and often horrifying housing-- all with a backdrop of world history, including the American Civil War.
Anbinder has an excellent understanding of New York's geography and how immigrants from each country roamed Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. He provides plenty of good maps. And the book is a statistics lovers dream with plenty of statistical commentaries on immigration from specific countries -- supported by lots and lots of tables.
This is an enjoyable book on an important subject.
Anbinder gives us a vibrant portrait of the masses that came to different parts of the City from Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Africa and the West Indies. He is at his story telling best when he relates the tales of the Irish, the Chinese and the Jews and their little Italys, Chinatowns, etc. in New York City. But all of his stories of the New York immigrant experience are superb. He wraps up this history in modern times, focusing on the persecutions of Muslims after 9/11.
He gives us all the aspects of the immigrants life -- religion, politics, military service, gang activity, food, jobs and often horrifying housing-- all with a backdrop of world history, including the American Civil War.
Anbinder has an excellent understanding of New York's geography and how immigrants from each country roamed Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. He provides plenty of good maps. And the book is a statistics lovers dream with plenty of statistical commentaries on immigration from specific countries -- supported by lots and lots of tables.
This is an enjoyable book on an important subject.
March 3, 2017
Really quite fascinating. The book begins in the colonial period and traces the flow/character of immigration over several centuries, with one group following another. Some of the stories are horrifying -- particularly the views we get of life in steerage in the sailing vessels of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the awful squalor of the places the newcomers were forced to inhabit. Others are more uplifting. While I already knew about the tension between various communities, I hadn't realized how violent some of the confrontations became. I suppose it's reassuring to see how anxiety/anger about the influx of a particular group (Irish, Italian, German, Jew, etc.) subsided over time as each new "threat" to America and the American way of life was replaced by a new one. Lots of interesting stories and anecdotes, many familiar names and many more we've never heard of before, and a constant flow of insight and analysis. An extraordinary amount of research went into the writing of this book, but "City" wears its information very well.
May 13, 2017
Terrific book, a fascinating history. I actually finished this a while ago but was reminded to update this today as I found myself arguing against some knee-jerk racism that turned up on some random FB post about poaching in Prospect Park that I otherwise would have liked to share. "Rollercoaster ride" isn't ordinarily a term I would think of applying to a history, but again and again, there were the sometimes horrendous conditions that drove people out of their homes, there was the hope and promise that drew them to NYC, and then there were the things that were said and done to the new arrivals by those who'd come earlier, repeating again and again right up until today. An excellent and thought provoking read (and not as depressing as I may have just made it sound).
June 29, 2017
Fantastic! This is such a comprehensive book regarding the history of New York and the immigrant experiences. It helped me understand so much about my own family history and enlightened me about the New York I grew up in! A mixture of statistics, historical facts and personal stories that span a wide range of ethnicities and time, this is an excellent read.
May 2, 2018
Better than GOTHAM because it's big, but not too big to carry. The best history of NYC I have ever read!
September 25, 2019
This is an essential read for everyone as it particularly relates to America's immigrant history. Anbinder takes us back 400 years to the first immigrant/settlers of New York. The book, while substantial at nearly 800 pages, was very engaging and the narrative carries the reader through with ease. The first three quarters of the book were the most fascinating to me - ranging from the first settlers in the early 1600s up to around the 1930s. These pages contained much in them that is worth knowing - that the struggles and issues around immigration that we are witnessing in 2019 are nothing new. The last quarter of the book is more recent history, so it wasn't as engaging for me. But if you've not read much history around this topic, it will be full of very important stories. At the end the book lays bare the reality that, while the concept of America is a worthy one and one worth striving for, we, as a nation, have never lived up to the ideal. The immigrant history of New York is a microcosm of the immigrant history of our entire nation. And it's a great reminder that the only native Americans that live in this country are Native Americans - and even most of those peoples migrated over the ancient land bridge (another story altogether and one worth looking into if you haven't). This book was time well invested and worth your focus.
June 17, 2022
This was understandable, well organized, well written and presented. I learned a lot about New York City and it’s history through the immigrants that founded it. The author did a comprehensive job. I only wish I could take one of his courses and hope that he continues to write.
So many events mentioned in U S History classes were more thoroughly explained. I also feel that ‘there isn’t a whole lot new’. We complain today about immigrants not learning English, yet this was true in NYC with the early Dutch settlers not feeling a need to learn English. I have a new appreciation of poverty, tenements, home work, and the determination that immigrants approach life with to make things better for their descendants.
So many events mentioned in U S History classes were more thoroughly explained. I also feel that ‘there isn’t a whole lot new’. We complain today about immigrants not learning English, yet this was true in NYC with the early Dutch settlers not feeling a need to learn English. I have a new appreciation of poverty, tenements, home work, and the determination that immigrants approach life with to make things better for their descendants.
May 2, 2021
Audiobook. Reader okay.
I've spent very little time in NYC so many locations described were not familiar to me but I did enjoy this history, particularly the earliest periods. Sadly, it also showed a 400 year old history filled with relentless and violent xenophobia, racism, sexism and classism, pretty much like any city.
Though some things have improved there's lots of room for more.
Let's hope it can help us be more aware of the continuing need for changing conditions and our thinking about such issues.
I've spent very little time in NYC so many locations described were not familiar to me but I did enjoy this history, particularly the earliest periods. Sadly, it also showed a 400 year old history filled with relentless and violent xenophobia, racism, sexism and classism, pretty much like any city.
Though some things have improved there's lots of room for more.
Let's hope it can help us be more aware of the continuing need for changing conditions and our thinking about such issues.
January 5, 2024
Tells the story of New York City as a history of waves of immigrants, each wave mistrusted at first, and each one making the city better. No city in the world can lay better claim to living a narrative of a constant flow of newcomers from different cultures, and Anbinder shows that despite each era fearing the new ones (the original Dutch feared the Lutherans from Germany. The Germans feared Irish Catholics. Then New Yorkers feared Italians. Then Jews. Then Puerto Ricans. Then...)
October 25, 2021
Five stars! What a good read! Very well written and full of interesting information. Truly every American should read this to understand their place in history and the current debate on immigration. Highly recommend.
March 21, 2017
I was totally engrossed in this masterly written book, and found it difficult to put down.
The pages are infused with incredible details, documentation, and illuminations. I have read other histories regarding New York City, yet there were descriptives within the pages of Anbinder's book that gave me new insight into other immigrant cultures, such as the Germans.
In my opinion, Tyler Anbinder has given the reading community a book of intense, historical importance.
The pages are infused with incredible details, documentation, and illuminations. I have read other histories regarding New York City, yet there were descriptives within the pages of Anbinder's book that gave me new insight into other immigrant cultures, such as the Germans.
In my opinion, Tyler Anbinder has given the reading community a book of intense, historical importance.
December 2, 2020
City of Dreams is the definitive story of the history of the Big Apple. It is more than just a story of immigration, but of the important historical events of the city. It's reach goes far beyond the affects of these events on the city to include this nation as well. Readers who are aware of the old saying, "history is told by the winners," will be quickly disabused of that "truism" early and often in this book!
December 26, 2018
Fantastic. History at its most compelling. Really eye-opening.
December 26, 2022
Ever since watching The American Experience's "New York" documentary...I have been very interested in the history of New York City. From the beginning when it was settled as a Dutch trading colony through the Civil War era which saw some of the most violent, deadly riots in US history, and all the way through to the modern era...the history of New York is fascinating. This book tells those stories with its primary focus on the eras of immigration and how each new wave of immigration shaped the city that we know today.
I had set a goal of 40 books this year and I have completed that goal with this book which was one of the most interesting that I have read in 2022.
I had set a goal of 40 books this year and I have completed that goal with this book which was one of the most interesting that I have read in 2022.
September 21, 2016
The story of immigration in America is more or less the story of America, so there are many ways writers and historians have of making the topic more manageable. Tyler Anbinder attacks it by telling the story of immigrants in New York City, and even this is a massive undertaking. From Colonial times to the present day, Anbinder explains how immigrants from dozens of countries have landed in New York and made it their home. In 1910, he tells us, the population density of the Lower East Side was greater than that of Mumbai today. In fact, the population of that area was greater than the combined populations of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Wyoming in 1910. It's hard to imagine what that would have been like -- the constant noise, for one thing, would have been exhausting.
In addition to a well-told history of a fascinating subject, Anbinder includes a comprehensive bibliography that will point you in lots of interesting directions for further reading. My only criticism of this book is of the final chapter in which Anbinder lectures us on how we should vote in this election of 2016.
In addition to a well-told history of a fascinating subject, Anbinder includes a comprehensive bibliography that will point you in lots of interesting directions for further reading. My only criticism of this book is of the final chapter in which Anbinder lectures us on how we should vote in this election of 2016.
December 28, 2017
The publishers notes really say it all. It is a vast and sweeping history of the immigration story of New York. From the Danes to about the 1980-90's. The experience of the early settlers and the current immigrants is not much different. Welcomed with suspicion and sectioned, much by choice. The country and the city were built largely on the backs of these peoples.
The stories of these people, many unknown, voices from the past tell us much about today as yesterday. There are several stories that have become very well known, as the family names will attest to. They say those who do not know there History... and I will say this reading is a testament to that thought. It should be read. I say many of our representatives in congress would be well served in doing so. We are a nation of immigrants. This is a story of New York Immigrants, yes. But it is also a story of the building of our country.
Solid 4* read.
The stories of these people, many unknown, voices from the past tell us much about today as yesterday. There are several stories that have become very well known, as the family names will attest to. They say those who do not know there History... and I will say this reading is a testament to that thought. It should be read. I say many of our representatives in congress would be well served in doing so. We are a nation of immigrants. This is a story of New York Immigrants, yes. But it is also a story of the building of our country.
Solid 4* read.
May 9, 2020
Starting with the tiny Dutch settlement in lower Manhattan, Anbinder tells the story of how New York City became the destination of millions of immigrants from all over the world. The book meticulously describes the living conditions, the neighborhoods and workplaces in the city and has numerous anecdotes mixed in with historical events and statistics. Every wave of immigration is addressed in depth and the book is quite information dense, but, at the same time narrated in a manner which is far from dry and factual. The last chapter reflects on immigration, then and now, and how some things have changed, and how some things have absolutely not changed and how New York City still continues to be for many, the City of Dreams.
December 18, 2016
Somehow both sweeping and incredibly specific history of both New York City and immigration. (It sort of oscillates between these two subjects. I didn't really mind bc most everything covered was fascinating but admittedly wasn't always purely about immigration and immigrant experience IN NYC). Important reminder that US has a long sad history of nativism and discriminating against new groups until the next new group arrives. Book had disappointingly uneven treatment of last 100 years, would have liked more on modern trends but was a little rushed (ditto with author's conclusion- either omit or flesh it out).
January 8, 2017
Impressive history of immigrants to New York - I especially enjoyed learning about some of the more recent immigrant groups. I have my doubts, however, that the issues with today's immigrants are the same as the ones in the past. See Germany in the past year. See France. I also would have liked more differentiation between 19th century German immigrants and German Jewish immigrants. It could be that the German Jewish immigrants assimilated so quickly after while the difference was minimal.
January 5, 2017
Great. A mist read for all US citizens.
What is old is new.
What is old is new.
March 1, 2018
This book was long but so well researched and written.
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