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Island of Hope, Island of Tears by David M. Brownstone (1979) HTF

Condition Details: Hardcover with DJ in Very Good condition.

$17.99

Overview

Between 1892 and the early 1950s nearly fifteen million people streamed through Ellis Island in search of a new life. Though it closed as a federal immigration station in 1954, the landmark island was restored and re-opened in 1990 as a museum run by the National Park Service—thus preserving the heritage of the more than one-hundred million Americans who can trace their immigrant roots there.


Island of Hope, Island of Tears tells the stories of these immigrants-largely in the words of the extraordinary men, women, and children who made the epic journey to America through the portals of Ellis Island. Coming primarily from southern and eastern Europe, and from widely diverse backgrounds, the immigrants represented in this remarkable volume recount their adventures with dignity, wit, and unflagging honesty. Some immigrants relate each step of their passage to America. Others highlight key events of the journey that brought them to a strange new world.


Among the dozens of narratives found here, you'll meet a Greek boy who, forced into the Turkish army at fifteen, escaped to America with help from the Russian Orthodox Church; a young Polish girl who made the harrowing journey from Russia to Ellis Island only to flee again from a "white slaver"; and a Czech woman who fooled doctors into letting her travel to America to join her husband despite being eight months pregnant.


Graced with more than fifty contemporary photographs, Island of Hope, Island of Tears is a rich history of the people whose hopes and dreams helped to forge America itself.