Hst. 2425: “Coming to America”, Final Essays
Part A. Address four of the following comparatives.
Briefly define what the content of each reading is, then explain what relationship do the two readings have with one another? Cite your sources and use testimonies where appropriate, just as you did in the midterm essays.
Voyage of the Damned (film) and Admitting Jewish Refugee Children in 1939…… syllabus sources.
Sacco-Vanzetti case and T. R. and the Hyphenates.
Life of Yoshiko Uchida, a Japanese-American Living………(sources) and Japanese-American Museum… syllabus sources
the Marial Boat People and newsreel of Hungarian revolutionaries, 1956.
Fortune Magazine, “New American Economy” [2011] and Immigration Reform, 1986.
Status of U.S. Immigration in 2007 [text] and any of the articles in the past four weeks you would like to use for this comparison.
Part B will be approximately three pages in length, no smaller than font 12, using source citations for the testimonies / readings you use.
Address the following essay question.
Define the experience of your family, or a particular family ancestor(s), or someone(s) whose experience you are familiar with, and portray the immigration experience(s) coming from their native homeland, crossing to the U.S., the process of “assimilation”, and what to you was the eventual outcome of this experience(s). Or if this process is still ongoing, characterize the stage s/he has reached by this point in the experience.
Next, relate that experience to several of the post-July 17th website testimonies you select to use. You may also use the exhibits at the N.Y. City Tenement Museum website if you wish. As well, the Museum of Work and Culture exhibits from the field trip, if you were able to attend the field trip. You may also use the interpretation of the “Fortune 500- New American Economy” article of last week.
If the family experience begins in slavery, then perhaps start with emancipation at the end of the Civil War. Move towards the earliest recollections of how family, or a particular individual, began his/her history on the road to full emancipation and citizenship, with all the attending difficulties in this process.
