Figure 1.--American history textbooks show images of European immigrants in the late-19th and early-20th century. The impression and often the text focus of their difficult lives in America, basically comparing thdeir experiences with 21st century America. Of course their experiences would be unacceptable to what we would allow today. But their experiences were not nearly as intolerable compared to the lives of contemprary Americans and acually were a great improvement over their lives in the countries where they came from. The image here shows what life was like on Sicily where many Italian immigrants originated. You have to ask yourself why images like this are absnt from virtyally all American history text books. The photogrph is the work of Giuseppe Bruno, probably in the 1880s. .

American imagery of immigration shows the immigrants arriving in America, often very moving images. The collection from Ellis Island is an icomic bit of Americana. We also see the immigrants and their early live in major American cities. Living conditions were often appalling based on our modern lives. But that leaves out an important part of the immigrant story--what life was like in their home countries before they arrived in America. Europeans flooded into America after the Civil War (1861-65). American history text books address this important part of American history. The text books make a major point of the difficult conditions immigrants faced in the late-19th and early-20th century. Never do they address the obvious question, if life was so difficult in America, why did they come? A primary reason of course, is that life was so much more difficult for working-class Europeans, especially Italians. Southern Italy including Sicily was almost feudal. Conditions were similar if not quite so severe in Eastern Europe. We have some information on what life was like in certain countries. One such country was Italy. Italians were one of the most important immigrant groups. We also see life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe, most of Poland which at the time was controlled by the Tsarist Empire. Here we are not only takking about poverty stricken, often rural areas. Even in the major industruial ciuntries (Britain, Germany, and France), workers had less affluent lives and earning were substntilly below Amerucan levels. Some of these images should also be in the text books. They show what life was like in the communities that the immigrants were coming from. This provides badly needed insights that American history textbooks fail to provide. The immigrant plight may seem difficult compared to 21st century standards, but the appropriate assessment is comparing life in America to that where they came from at the time. How competent historians preparing these text books could make such obviously flawed assessments is difficult to understand. The immigrants of course themselves not only came to America, but most chose to stay and make their new life as Americans.

Created: 6:22 PM 5/1/2023
Last updated: 6:22 PM 5/1/2023