New Land, New Lives captures the voices of Scandinavian men and women who crossed the Atlantic during the early decades of the 20th century and settled in the Pacific Northwest. Based on oral history interviews with 45 Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes—more than half of them women—the book is illustrated with family photographs and also includes background information on Scandinavian culture and immigration.
""Because I am a Dane and have gone to folk schools, I think I am a better American.""--""All my life, I've been eating rye bread.""--""I have my language from Norway, and my tradition."" -- MAP -- APPENDIX: INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE -- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Excerpts from diaries and letters provide glimpses into the lives of Russian, Lithuanian, Italian, Greek, Swedish, and Irish immigrants who passed through Ellis Island around the turn of the century.
One child in five in America is the child of immigrants, and their numbers increase each year. Based on an extraordinary interdisciplinary study that followed 400 newly arrived children from the Caribbean, China, Central America, and Mexico for five years, this book provides a compelling account of the lives, dreams, academic journeys, and frustrations of these youngest immigrants.
The wrath of an angry Atlantic was directly upon us - the ship was in full storm! The Fair Lady pitched violently against the massive waves that thrashed the sides of the ship like rhythmic claps of thunder. Water filled every accessible space and everything that could be lashed was tightly secured lest it be lost at sea. All passengers were in fear of their lives and were desperately praying for safe deliverance to the nearest land, wherever that might be. After several hours of sheer terror, the storm abated and an aerie calm came over the ship. Fortunately, the Fair Lady had survived the ravaging storm with minimal damage. The Fair Lady had logged 53 sunrises since it left Glasgow and the 210 passengers and crew last saw land ...
Lose yourself in the challenges and emotions of eighteenth-century Maine. In 1753, Johann Oberstrasse’s wife, Christianne, announces that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. In search of a new life, Johann and the family join an expedition to the New World, lured by the promise of land on the Maine coast. A grinding voyage deposits them on the edge of a continent filled with dangers and disease. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping. To advance in an English world, Johann adapts their name to Overstreet. But war follows them. The French and their Indian allies mount attacks on the English settlements of New England. To protect their growing family and Broad Bay neighbors, Johann accepts the captaincy of the settlement’s militia and leads the company through the British assault on the citadel of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. Left behind in Broad Bay, Christianne, their small children, and the old and young stave off Indian attacks, hunger, and cruel privations. Peace brings Johann success as a carpenter, but also searing personal losses. When the fever for American independence reaches Broad Bay in 1774, Johann is torn, then resolves to kill no more…unlike his son, Franklin, who leaves to stand with the Americans on Bunker Hill. At the same time, Johann faces old demons and a new crisis when an escaped prisoner—a hired Hessian soldier, just as he had been—arrives at his door.
"We will go to America!" It is 1868, and Carl Erik's family faces starvation in Sweden. As their hopes fade, they must endure a journey over land and sea to reach a better life in a new country thousands of miles away.
"The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna deltas has newly emerged 'char' islands, which are very vulnerable, socially, institutionally and environmentally. This book explains how the Governments of Bangladesh and the Netherlands cooperated on a land-based rural development project to give settlers security and purpose"--
