Ellis Island
a people’s history
by Małgorzata Szejnert
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Pub Date Aug 04 2020 | Archive Date Sep 30 2020
Scribe UK | Scribe
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Description
A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
A landmark work of history that brings the voices of the past vividly to life, transforming our understanding of the immigrant experience.
Whilst living in New York, journalist Małgorzata Szejnert would often gaze out from lower Manhattan at Ellis Island, a dark outline on the horizon. How many stories did this tiny patch of land hold? How many people had joyfully embarked on a new life there — or known the despair of being turned away? How many were held there against their will?
Ellis Island draws on unpublished testimonies, memoirs and correspondence from many internees and immigrants, including Russians, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Germans, and Poles, along with commissioners, interpreters, doctors, and nurses — all of whom knew they were taking part in a tremendous historical phenomenon.
It tells the many stories of the island, from Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first to be processed there, to the diaries of Fiorello La Guardia, who worked at the station before going on to become one of New York City’s greatest mayors, to depicting the ordeal the island went through during the 9/11 attacks. At the book’s core are letters recovered from the Russian State Archive, a heartrending trove of correspondence from migrants to their loved ones back home. But their letters never reached their destination: instead, they were confiscated by intelligence services and remained largely unseen.
Far from the open-door policy of myth, we see that deportations from Ellis Island were often based on pseudo-scientific ideas about race, gender, and disability. Sometimes, families were broken up, and new arrivals were held in detention at the Island for days, weeks, or months under quarantine. Indeed the island compound has spent longer as an internment camp than as a migration station.
Today, the island is no less political. In popular culture, it is a romantic symbol of the generations of immigrants that reshaped the United States. But its true history reveals that today’s immigration debate has deep roots. Now a master storyteller brings its past to life, illustrated with unique archival photographs.
Advance Praise
‘To me Małgorzata Szejnert embodies the image of Poland … She has grace, a gentle tone, and a serene gaze.’
— Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Secondhand Time
‘To me Małgorzata Szejnert embodies the image of Poland … She has grace, a gentle tone, and a serene gaze.’
— Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Secondhand Time
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781925938210 |
| PRICE | $54.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 400 |
Featured Reviews
Kelly E, Reviewer
What a history lesson in this book. Reading how the island came to be and what people went through. It opened my eyes to how the Jews were even treated here in America. I can understand what my ancestors went through coming to America.
Laura V, Reviewer
Malgorzata Szejnert has written a fascinating and insightful history of Ellis Island, the U.S.'s main immigration station from 1892 to 1954 which saw up to 12 million people coming through for immigration processing.
Szejnert starts right at the beginning, when the island was inhabited by Native Americans and it was one of three Oyster Islands, and ends with Ellis Island now as a museum and even covers the role it played during the September 11th attacks.
I visited the island and the museum in January 2019 and wished I had been able to dedicate more hours to the visit, so I was very happy to be able to read this extensive history in lieu of visiting the island again.
The author is very good in bringing a very personal and human dimension to the history which you won't probably get by visiting the museum alone though. Individuals' stories, both those of employees and of immigrants, are skilfully woven into the chain of world events and government policies affecting the every day running and character of the island. This creates a very narrative and engaging style of presenting the island's history which I very much appreciated. Some stories are truly heartbreaking. There's the one of the elderly father and young student son who have to make a split-second decision of whether they agree to be separated and the father returning to most likely an early death in the Russia of pogroms and institutionalised anti-semitism. There's also the odyssey of Nathan Cohen, a man who following a nervous breakdown is sent from country to country with none of them willing to accept him.
I did find the last third of the book lagged more, perhaps it got a little repetitive and certainly I found
the recounting of what happened after the island's immigration station both a little rushed and less interesting.
The photos dotted across the book were a great addition.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in migration and 19th and 20th century history.
Many thanks to Scribe UK and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#EllisIsland #NetGalley
Susanne L, Reviewer
Thank you to the author, Scribe UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Our family immigrated to the US in the 1960s, but of course the era of Ellis Island was long past then. However, my own background immediately drew me to this book, and it did not disappoint. The author starts at the beginning of the island's history, when it belonged to Native Americans, and traces its path through various waves of immigration, two world wars and innumerable personal stories and remembrances, both of the staff working at the island, and the immigrants funneled through upon their arrival in the US. Although it took me a bit to get into the writer's rhythm at first, I loved the human dimension that the author brought into the history of the island, bolstered with the use of photos. The book ends with the recounting of the efforts to preserve Ellis Island as a national monument, which - for a nation of immigrants - is absolutely fitting. This book is a wonderful complement to the other literature about Ellis Island, and I highly recommend it.
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