Bibliograph

The great departure, mass migration from Eastern Europe and the making of the free world, Tara Zahra

Type

Label

The great departure, mass migration from Eastern Europe and the making of the free world, Tara Zahra

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-369) and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The great departure

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

909974344

Responsibility statement

Tara Zahra

Sub title

mass migration from Eastern Europe and the making of the free world

Summary

"A panoramic, eye-opening history of the vast migration of Eastern Europeans to the West by a recent winner of a MacArthur Fellowship. Between 1846 and 1940, more than 50 million Europeans moved to the Americas, irrevocably changing both their new lands and the ones they left behind. Their immigration fostered an idea of the 'land of the free, ' and yet more than a third returned home again. In a groundbreaking study, Tara Zahra brilliantly explores the deeper story of this unprecedented movement of people. As villages emptied, some blamed traffickers in human labor, targeting Jewish emigration agents. Others saw opportunity: to seed colonies of migrants like the Polish community in Argentina, or to gain economic advantage from an inflow of foreign currency, or to reshape their populations by encouraging the emigration of minorities. These precedents would shape the Holocaust, the closing of the Iron Curtain, and tragedies of ethnic cleansing, while also forming notions of social solidarity, human rights, and freedom--whether it be the freedom to move or the freedom to stay home"--Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

"Not a golden country" -- Travel agents on trial -- "The man farthest down" -- Happy and unhappy returns -- The first final solution -- Work will set you free -- The freedom train -- Free to stay or go

Classification