Week 3

Global Migrations, 1830-1930

How did dramatic political, economic, and social changes during the 19th century transform and encourage migration to and within the United States? What were the consequences of U.S. military, territorial, and economic expansion for indigenous peoples, slaves, immigrants, colonized peoples, and native-born and naturalized Americans?

 

 

Primary Sources

  • Irish Immigrant Letters Home, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  • Walter D. Kamphoefner, Wolfgang Johannes Helbich, and Ulrike Sommer, News From the Land of Freedom: German Immigrants Write Home (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991)
  • Ellis Island Photographs, New York Public Library

 

Multimedia

 

 

WEEK 4

Historical Origins of Contemporary Nativism and Xenophobia

Why has immigration been a topic of perennial debate in the U.S.? How has the fear of foreigners and the desire to define and protect an “American” identity evolved over time?

 

 

Primary Sources

 

 

WEEK 5

Mass Migration and the Rise of Federal Immigration Law

How did policy makers increasingly use race, class, political ideology, health and ability, gender, and sexuality to favor the entry of particular groups and restrict others? How did immigrants and their American-born children persevere during an age of restriction?

 

 

Primary Sources

 

Multimedia

 

 

WEEK 6

The Closed Gate (1924-1965)? Migration, Immigration, and Citizenship

Who settled in the United States during the ‘era of exclusion’? How did the ‘era of exclusion’ change Americans’ ideas about belonging, citizenship, and labor?

 

 

Primary Sources

 

Multimedia

  • 14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark, and Vanessa Lopez,” Graham Street Productions (documentary film)
  • “A Class Apart,” PBS (documentary film)
  • “Chicano!” (documentary film)
  • “Dollar a Day, Ten Cents a Dance” (documentary film)
  • “Race: The Power of an Illusion,” episode 3 (documentary film)
  • “The Jazz Singer” (film)
  • “The New Latinos,” Episode 4, The Latino Americans (documentary film)