The Uprooted

Awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize in history,The Uprootedchronicles the common experiences of the millions of European immigrants who came to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--their fears, their hopes, their expectations. TheNew Yorkercalled it "strong stuff, handled in a masterly and quite moving way," while theNew York Timessuggested that "The Uprootedis history with a difference--the difference being its concerns with hearts and souls no less than an event." The book inspired a generation of research in the history of American immigration, but because it emphasizes the depressing conditions faced by immigrants, focuses almost entirely on European peasants, and does not claim to provide a definitive answer to the causes of American immigration, its great value as a well-researched and readable description of the emotional experiences of immigrants, and its ability to evoke the time and place of America at the turn of a century, have sometimes been overlooked. Recognized today as a foundational text in immigration studies, this edition contains a new preface by the author.

Oscar Handlin is Emeritus Professor of History, Harvard University. Among his many books are The American People in the Twentieth Century, Race and Nationality in American Life, and Boston's Immigrants, 1790-1880.