Immigration: An American History by Carl J. Bon Tempo and Hasia R. Diner (review)

Abstract

In co-authoring Immigration: An American History, two of the nation’s leading experts on the subject—Carl Bon Tempo and Hasia Diner—have taken on possibly their greatest challenge yet: surveying four centuries of U.S. immigration history in a captivating yet concise narrative that engages general interest, student, and academic readers alike. Their adroit organization of the book, incorporation of classic and recent works of scholarship covering a wide array of subfields and subjects, and crisp narration of major immigration policy developments alongside concrete demonstrations of representative migrant experiences combine to produce an excellent and original work of synthesis. At a succinct 364 pages of main text, the book proceeds briskly. After a short introduction, the authors divide their work into thirteen chapters, each about twenty-five pages in length. While the chapters largely cover distinct historical eras and advance in chronological order, lengthier time periods—especially those which witnessed high rates of immigration—often receive two chapters split along thematic lines. Though the book prudently eschews broad theorizations in favor of a narrative synthesis, the authors do offer three bigpicture conclusions in their epilogue: that “Immigrants came . . . in search of a better life,” that “the state . . . shaped immigration,” and that “Immigrants are like us” (italics in original; 362, 363). The paired chapters stand out among the book’s many strengths as especially efficacious. They afford the authors enough space to dive into social, cultural, and economic histories of immigrants in one chapter while describing contemporaneous immigration politics and policy developments in the other. This organization, in turn, allows the authors to lean into their respective areas of expertise and past publications (such as Diner’s socioeconomic and cultural explorations of Jewish, Irish, and/or women’s immigration history and Bon Tempo’s work on the development of post-World War II U.S. refugee law) while interweaving older and newer examples of immigration scholarship (on subjects ranging from the evolution of the federal immigration apparatus to various immigrant rights movements). While this structure does produce occasional complications (with content about the Dillingham Commission split among back-to-back chapters, for instance), its benefits far outweigh these slight costs.