Ethnic Historians and the Mainstream

ALAN M. KRAUT is University Professor of History at American University, a nonresident Fellow of the Migration Policy Institute, and president of the Organization of American Historians. He is the author of The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880–1921; Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace”; Goldberger’s War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader; and coauthor of Covenant of Care: Newark Beth Israel and the Jewish Hospital in America (Rutgers University Press). DAVID A. GERBER is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Buffalo where he continues to teach and assist in directing the Center for Disability Studies.  He is the author of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction and Authors of Their Lives: The Personal Correspondence of British Immigrants to North America in the Nineteenth Century.

"These historians whose books we have read, shaped the scholarship. With this insightful volume we can know where they came from and understand why they wrote as they did." - Hasia Diner (New York University) "Kraut and Gerber have assembled chapters by an impressive range of scholars, who reflect on how their own lives and experiences and those of their ancestors have informed their academic work. This collection presents compelling and revealing work from an outstanding group of scholars." (Journal of Interdisciplinary History)

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction by David A. Gerber 2. Worlds Apart and Together: From Italian American Girlhood to Historian of Immigration by Virginia Yans 3. Sidewalk Histories by Deborah Dash Moore 4. Coal Town Chronicles and Scholarly Books by John Bodnar 5. Ethnic and Racial Identities: A Polish Filipina's Progress by Barbara M. Posadas 6. From Back of the Yards to the College Classroom by Dominic A. Pacyga 7. Why Irish? Writing Irish American History by Timothy J. Meagher 8. In Our Own Words: Reclaiming Chinese American Women's History by Judy Yung 9. Ordinary People by Eileen H. Tamura 10. Americana by MarÍa Christina GarcÍa 11. Meddling in the American Dilemma: Race, Migrations, and Identities from an Africana Transnational Perspective by Violet M. Showers Johnson 12. From Uncle Mustafa to Auntie Rana: Journeys to Mexico, the United States, and Lebanon by Theresa Alfaro-Velcamp Coda by Alan M. Kraut Notes on Contributors