The question this book attempts to address is why do those on the right resent and reject government? The author, a Berkeley sociologist, decided to try and discern the answer from deep in the south, in a hard-right state, very poor and the most polluted in the country - Louisiana. The state is 49th of 50 on quality of life measurements and receives a striking 44% of its budget from the federal government. Although it has served the petrochemical and oil industries by not regulating them, Louisiana's reward is a horribly polluted environment. The author moved to Lake Charles, La. and spent five years trying to understand the members of the Tea Party and what she calls the Great Paradox. Why do people that the government helps, or wish to help, hate it?
Although they are impoverished and live in 'Cancer Alley', the Cajuns of southwest Louisiana put God and family first and do not wish to see their taxes (they hardly pay any) go to "non-working, non-deserving people". There is no one in their world - the local churches, the state of Louisiana, the companies there, Rush Limbaugh or Fox News - who does anything to question the certainties of this bias.
The author discusses the concept of 'line cutters'. As the aging white population pursues the ever elusive American dream, it is not globalization and technology that are the enemies, the creators of income inequality, it is those who have cut ahead. They are blacks, women, immigrants and anyone else the government has helped. One of the leading cutters, in the eyes of the Tea party folk in Louisiana, is President Obama.
"For the Tea Party around the country, the shifting moral qualifications for the American Dream had turned them into strangers in their own land, afraid, resentful, displaced, and dismissed..."
This book is one of those recommended to the stunned, informed elite last November, to help understand the election. In that regard, it is good and helpful. I have lost all touch with the blue collar world that has seen its wages stifled for the last forty years. The concerns and anxieties articulated here are real and it is easy to be personally sympathetic. The plight of the Cajuns is compounded by the amazing environmental abuse inflicted on them. Thus, I am not inclined to conclude they are ill-informed or overly tribal. They are victims. One person said "Pollution is a sacrifice we make for capitalism." What an appalling conclusion to come to. In this story, it is the huge oil and petrochemical companies that have been given a free ride that are to blame. Their handmaiden, former Governor Bobby Jindal, reduced what little oversight the state imposed, cut taxes for industry, reduced social services and stood by while the polluters laid it on. This book is only 241 pages and a relatively easy read.
4.28.2017
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Dahl
This is another borrowing from the library of Eloise Anne Fairchild, my wonderful granddaughter. Charlie Bucket lived close by the Wonka Chocolate Factory when its proprietor, Willy, announced that the five children who found the Golden Tickets would receive a special tour. One day, Charlie found a dollar in the snow, purchased a candy bar and found a Golden Ticket. Charlie and his Grandpa Joe showed up on the appointed day. Oh the sights they saw: a chocolate waterfall, a field of gum, Oompa-Loompa workers, the fudge room, the chocolate river, and gobstoppers. Some of the children could not control themselves and greedily ate in the factory. Augustus floated away and into a pipe. Violet ballooned into a fat blueberry. Veruca was bratty and selfish and 100 squirrels carried her away to the garbage chute. Mike was so enamored with TV watching that he flew himself into the Wonka TV transporter. Only Charlie Bucket was left, and Willy declared him the winner. Because Willly liked Charlie the best, he told him that as soon as he was old enough, the factory was his. Willy gave the Chocolate Factory to Charlie.
Earthly Remains, Leon - B +
This is the 26th book in the Guido Brunetti series that the now almost 75-year-old Donna Leon started in 1992. I seldom notice dedications, but here the expatriate American dedicates the book to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She then goes on to tell the most unique tale in the series that may or may not even involve a crime. There are certainly rising hints of a misdeed. She explores the geography and history of the lagoon and some corporate evil-doing along the way. It's great book by an enlightened author who loves Venice, its people, customs and history. Great series get better with age.
The Devil's Feast, Carter - B
This, the third in the series, is set, as was the second, in London in the 1840's. The first and best of the three was set in the Raj. The take-away in this novel is the background of and establishment of the Reform Club and its trendsetting kitchen. It was the first significant non-Tory club and a political compromise between the Radicals and the Whigs, who eventually went on to be the Liberals. Most of the time in the novel is spent on the workings of the kitchen and its real life creator and legendary chef, Alexis Soyer, of Paris. In the second book, I compared Avery and Blake to Watson and Holmes. Blake as Holmes continues to peek through. As I've said before, when a historian takes up the pen of a novelist, the results are usually enlightening.
4.23.2017
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Frankopan - B
This is a history of the world viewed from the perspective of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Himalayas. As the Oxford scholar author points out, this is the home of most civilizations and religions. The rise of Europe was neither inevitable, nor pre-ordained and most western historians fail to focus on the lands around the Black and Caspian Seas, the original center of the world.
Persia was the first great empire and creator of laws and civilization. It was conquered by Alexander the Great, whose successors ruled in the east for three centuries and began organizing the foundation of a trading system along the Silk Road.* The Chinese engaged from the east and the Romans entered from the west. It was the wealth of Egypt and its trading as far east as India that propelled the greatness and wealth of Rome. The draw of the east was so compelling that Rome moved its capital to Constantinople. "The ancient world was much more sophisticated and interlinked than we sometimes like to think."
Many and various religions competed in the area. "Religions rose and fell as they spread across Eurasia, fighting each other for audiences, loyalty and moral authority." Buddhism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism were the dominant ones. Christianity, pioneered throughout the Roman Empire by Constantine, was to eventually succeed in the east, not through conquest, but by acceptance. The rulers of Persia felt comfortable with and promoted religious tolerance. Indeed by the seventh century, it appeared as if Christianity was ready to dominate the east.
In the century before the rise of Islam, the known world saw devastation everywhere. "The scale of death was unimaginable." From China to the Mediterranean, "Bubonic plague brought catastrophe, despair and death". Then, there was a major war between the Roman and Persian Empires. In southwest Arabia, a trend toward monotheism was building and in 610, a trader named Muhammad received inspiration from Allah. As the world struggled with the consequences of plague and war, he offered spiritual salvation that brought with it economic rewards. Expanding the religion through the sword, Islam quickly conquered Arabia and Persia. Its expansion was aided by Christians and Jews because from their perspective, "it looked inclusive and conciliatory, and offered hope of calming tensions." Within a century, Islam spread from Arabia to Spain and China. The wealth that flowed to the center led to the construction of one of the great cities of the world. It was called the city of peace - Baghdad. The new-found prosperity of the Arab world led to innovation, urbanization, advances in medicine and mathematics and an upgrading of the quality of life, while in poverty stricken Europe, life went on with little change. Europe was an intellectual backwater restricted by a fundamentalist religion. "The Islamic conquests created a new world order, an economic giant, bolstered by self -confidence, broadmindedness and a passionate zeal for progress"
In the later centuries of the millennium, the steppes increasingly influenced the civilized world. The Rus traded furs and slaves and, in the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks and other nomads were on the move. The Seljuks became rulers in Baghdad. Turmoil threatened Jerusalem and the faltering rulers in Constantinople asked for help from the west. Thus, began the Crusader era. In the summer of 1099, Jerusalem fell along with Antioch, Tyre and Tripoli. "Over the next two centuries, enormous effort went into holding the territories conquered in the First Crusade. Serving the King of Jerusalem meant serving God. The road to Jerusalem became the road to heaven." Additionally, the Muslim naval domination of the eastern Mediterranean was broken by the Italian city-states, of which Venice was foremost. They traded with and supplied the Crusaders. Venice was granted special trading privileges in the Byzantine Empire and there was a general increase in trading volumes between Europe and the Muslim world. The Crusader era began to end in 1187, when Saladin retook Jerusalem, and in 1204, when the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
Into this world where religions and empires wrestled for hegemony came the greatest disruption in recorded history - the Mongols. The contemporary world described them as it did the Huns centuries before. They were wild animals wearing the skins of dogs and mice. "Although the Mongols seemed to be chaotic, bloodthirsty and unreliable, their rise was not the result of a lack of order, but precisely the opposite: ruthless planning, streamlined organization and a clear set of strategic directives were the key to establishing the largest land empire in history." In half-a-century, they conquered China, India, the steppes, Russia and as far west as Palestine and Poland. They did wreak havoc wherever they went. But only initially. Soon, the rules, trading systems and governing procedures laid down by the Mongols led to a vast increase in trade and increase in wealth throughout the world. The significant movement of peoples around the world in the 13th and 14th centuries fostered an environment in which another great disrupter would once again emerge- the Black Death. From China to Ireland, millions upon millions died. However as society rebuilt after the plague, there were increases in wealth and prosperity in both Europe and Asia.
From Europe, there was exploration that led the Portuguese east into Asia and the Spanish west to the New World. Armed with superior weapons, the Europeans plundered America, Africa and Asia and built the foundation for the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Soon, the British and the Dutch joined the action. The wealth created in Europe increased demand for luxury goods throughout the Middle East and Asia and led to a rising tide of wealth around the world. "Continents were now connected to each other, linked by flows of silver."
The British East India Company, which traded with and eventually occupied the sub-continent had a significant impact on the history of the Silk Road. With their Russian rivals, they played 'The Great Game' throughout the area. The Russians moved aggressively into central Asia. Only Persia and the Ottoman Empire could hold them off. The Russian interest in Persia was so great and so anxiety inducing to the British, that the author posits that the Triple Entente was an attempt to befriend Russia and turn its gaze toward Europe. Then, World War I destroyed the finances of all it's European participants. "The experience of war had been shattering; it made control of the Silk Road and its riches more important than ever."
In May of 1908, one of the most important events in world history happened in Persia when British drillers found "the motherlode, striking oil and sending black gold into the air." Earlier the Shah, in desperate need of funds, had handed the oil over to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, thus beginning a tension that would eventually explode in the form of Islamic fundamentalism. The British then asked the Arabs to support them in the war against the Ottomans and promised them independence. The British reneged, split the Middle East with the French, promised the Zionists Palestine and further planted seeds of fissures to come. A little bit further south, the Americans joined the party when they set up the Arabian American Oil Company. Relying on a system that put monarchs on thrones, the western system 'managing' the Middle East's oil wealth held through WWII. It was successful in the early days of the Cold War, but fell apart over Arab nationalism and US support of Israel. Twice in the 1970's OPEC brought the west to its knees with supply boycotts and price increases. And in 1979, the Iranian Revolution placed the most important oil power firmly in the anti-western camp. The fuel that ran the modern world and all of its attendant wealth and power was on its own. The US intervened aggressively in 1991 and disastrously in 2003.
The region's natural resources are leading to a rebirth of the world's center. Pipelines and railroads criss-cross the area. Airports and cities are rising from the steppe. "The Chinese government is building networks carefully and deliberately to connect to minerals, energy sources and access to cities, harbors and oceans." IPhones are manufactured in western China. Yale, Columbia and NYU have campuses in the Persian Gulf. The US has 'pivoted' its foreign policy to Asia. President Xi has spoken of 'One Belt, One Road'. Hopefully, a new Silk Road is in the offing.
In the preface to this book, the author points out his coming of age realization that the Eurocentric view of the world often taught is, in fact, not quite correct. He is, of course, not plowing any new ground on that front. Nor does he stick to his core themes, as he spends chapter after chapter going far and wide discussing Europe and even the US at length. Any well-read person knows that the history of the world is one of trade, migration and a vast sea of people, ideas, and religions mingling and evolving from one end of the Eurasian land mass to the other and that before the discovery of the New World. What the author has done, in my opinion, is put it together better, particularly in the first millennium, than many of the other books that I've read.
*The phrase was coined by a 19th century German history professor.
Persia was the first great empire and creator of laws and civilization. It was conquered by Alexander the Great, whose successors ruled in the east for three centuries and began organizing the foundation of a trading system along the Silk Road.* The Chinese engaged from the east and the Romans entered from the west. It was the wealth of Egypt and its trading as far east as India that propelled the greatness and wealth of Rome. The draw of the east was so compelling that Rome moved its capital to Constantinople. "The ancient world was much more sophisticated and interlinked than we sometimes like to think."
Many and various religions competed in the area. "Religions rose and fell as they spread across Eurasia, fighting each other for audiences, loyalty and moral authority." Buddhism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism were the dominant ones. Christianity, pioneered throughout the Roman Empire by Constantine, was to eventually succeed in the east, not through conquest, but by acceptance. The rulers of Persia felt comfortable with and promoted religious tolerance. Indeed by the seventh century, it appeared as if Christianity was ready to dominate the east.
In the century before the rise of Islam, the known world saw devastation everywhere. "The scale of death was unimaginable." From China to the Mediterranean, "Bubonic plague brought catastrophe, despair and death". Then, there was a major war between the Roman and Persian Empires. In southwest Arabia, a trend toward monotheism was building and in 610, a trader named Muhammad received inspiration from Allah. As the world struggled with the consequences of plague and war, he offered spiritual salvation that brought with it economic rewards. Expanding the religion through the sword, Islam quickly conquered Arabia and Persia. Its expansion was aided by Christians and Jews because from their perspective, "it looked inclusive and conciliatory, and offered hope of calming tensions." Within a century, Islam spread from Arabia to Spain and China. The wealth that flowed to the center led to the construction of one of the great cities of the world. It was called the city of peace - Baghdad. The new-found prosperity of the Arab world led to innovation, urbanization, advances in medicine and mathematics and an upgrading of the quality of life, while in poverty stricken Europe, life went on with little change. Europe was an intellectual backwater restricted by a fundamentalist religion. "The Islamic conquests created a new world order, an economic giant, bolstered by self -confidence, broadmindedness and a passionate zeal for progress"
In the later centuries of the millennium, the steppes increasingly influenced the civilized world. The Rus traded furs and slaves and, in the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks and other nomads were on the move. The Seljuks became rulers in Baghdad. Turmoil threatened Jerusalem and the faltering rulers in Constantinople asked for help from the west. Thus, began the Crusader era. In the summer of 1099, Jerusalem fell along with Antioch, Tyre and Tripoli. "Over the next two centuries, enormous effort went into holding the territories conquered in the First Crusade. Serving the King of Jerusalem meant serving God. The road to Jerusalem became the road to heaven." Additionally, the Muslim naval domination of the eastern Mediterranean was broken by the Italian city-states, of which Venice was foremost. They traded with and supplied the Crusaders. Venice was granted special trading privileges in the Byzantine Empire and there was a general increase in trading volumes between Europe and the Muslim world. The Crusader era began to end in 1187, when Saladin retook Jerusalem, and in 1204, when the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
Into this world where religions and empires wrestled for hegemony came the greatest disruption in recorded history - the Mongols. The contemporary world described them as it did the Huns centuries before. They were wild animals wearing the skins of dogs and mice. "Although the Mongols seemed to be chaotic, bloodthirsty and unreliable, their rise was not the result of a lack of order, but precisely the opposite: ruthless planning, streamlined organization and a clear set of strategic directives were the key to establishing the largest land empire in history." In half-a-century, they conquered China, India, the steppes, Russia and as far west as Palestine and Poland. They did wreak havoc wherever they went. But only initially. Soon, the rules, trading systems and governing procedures laid down by the Mongols led to a vast increase in trade and increase in wealth throughout the world. The significant movement of peoples around the world in the 13th and 14th centuries fostered an environment in which another great disrupter would once again emerge- the Black Death. From China to Ireland, millions upon millions died. However as society rebuilt after the plague, there were increases in wealth and prosperity in both Europe and Asia.
From Europe, there was exploration that led the Portuguese east into Asia and the Spanish west to the New World. Armed with superior weapons, the Europeans plundered America, Africa and Asia and built the foundation for the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Soon, the British and the Dutch joined the action. The wealth created in Europe increased demand for luxury goods throughout the Middle East and Asia and led to a rising tide of wealth around the world. "Continents were now connected to each other, linked by flows of silver."
The British East India Company, which traded with and eventually occupied the sub-continent had a significant impact on the history of the Silk Road. With their Russian rivals, they played 'The Great Game' throughout the area. The Russians moved aggressively into central Asia. Only Persia and the Ottoman Empire could hold them off. The Russian interest in Persia was so great and so anxiety inducing to the British, that the author posits that the Triple Entente was an attempt to befriend Russia and turn its gaze toward Europe. Then, World War I destroyed the finances of all it's European participants. "The experience of war had been shattering; it made control of the Silk Road and its riches more important than ever."
In May of 1908, one of the most important events in world history happened in Persia when British drillers found "the motherlode, striking oil and sending black gold into the air." Earlier the Shah, in desperate need of funds, had handed the oil over to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, thus beginning a tension that would eventually explode in the form of Islamic fundamentalism. The British then asked the Arabs to support them in the war against the Ottomans and promised them independence. The British reneged, split the Middle East with the French, promised the Zionists Palestine and further planted seeds of fissures to come. A little bit further south, the Americans joined the party when they set up the Arabian American Oil Company. Relying on a system that put monarchs on thrones, the western system 'managing' the Middle East's oil wealth held through WWII. It was successful in the early days of the Cold War, but fell apart over Arab nationalism and US support of Israel. Twice in the 1970's OPEC brought the west to its knees with supply boycotts and price increases. And in 1979, the Iranian Revolution placed the most important oil power firmly in the anti-western camp. The fuel that ran the modern world and all of its attendant wealth and power was on its own. The US intervened aggressively in 1991 and disastrously in 2003.
The region's natural resources are leading to a rebirth of the world's center. Pipelines and railroads criss-cross the area. Airports and cities are rising from the steppe. "The Chinese government is building networks carefully and deliberately to connect to minerals, energy sources and access to cities, harbors and oceans." IPhones are manufactured in western China. Yale, Columbia and NYU have campuses in the Persian Gulf. The US has 'pivoted' its foreign policy to Asia. President Xi has spoken of 'One Belt, One Road'. Hopefully, a new Silk Road is in the offing.
In the preface to this book, the author points out his coming of age realization that the Eurocentric view of the world often taught is, in fact, not quite correct. He is, of course, not plowing any new ground on that front. Nor does he stick to his core themes, as he spends chapter after chapter going far and wide discussing Europe and even the US at length. Any well-read person knows that the history of the world is one of trade, migration and a vast sea of people, ideas, and religions mingling and evolving from one end of the Eurasian land mass to the other and that before the discovery of the New World. What the author has done, in my opinion, is put it together better, particularly in the first millennium, than many of the other books that I've read.
*The phrase was coined by a 19th century German history professor.
A Great Reckoning, Penny - B +
In the latest in this well-written, insightful, if not brilliant series, Gamache comes out of retirement to become Commander of the Academy Surete. His mission is to clean up the last bastion of the old-boys corruption and cruelty network. He fires half of the staff, but keeps on the evil 'Duke' and brings in his former best friend, and now failed and disgraced former Superintendent Michel Brebeuf. Armand's path to a new and improved Academy is not apparent with these two on board. The 'Duke' is soon murdered and everyone is under suspicion. The parallel story involves a hundred-year-old orienteering map from Three Pines and the four students Armand has tasked to study the map and to try and 'solve' it. The map allows the author to go back in history and explore, with extraordinary passion, the agony of being the mother of sons at war. This is probably the best in the series.
4.06.2017
City of Dreams: The 400 Year Epic History of Immigrant New York, Anbinder - A*
The first federal Superintendent of Immigrants for NY Harbor was appointed in 1890. For most of NY's history, anyone could enter the British colonies or the young United States. Around the turn of the 19th century, medical check-ups, with possible quarantine on Staten Island was the first attempt to supervise the flow. Later, in 1855, a reception center was established at Castle Garden in the Battery. Over time, convicts, prostitutes, Chinese contract laborers, idiots, paupers, and polygamists were barred. On January 1, 1892, Ellis Island was opened. It could process 15,000 people per day. It would be the point of welcome for 15 million Americans before it closed in the 1950's. They all came with dreams.
The Dutch came to New Amsterdam in 1624. Trade in furs was the city's first business. Over the 60 years of Dutch rule, six thousand immigrants, many indentured servants, came to the New World. The colony became New York in 1664. It would take until the early 18th century for NY to be Anglicized and for there to be more English than Dutch speakers. The English and later Scotch immigrants were of a higher caliber than those that went to many of the other colonies. They were not indentured servants and often were businessmen from London. Anglicization was accompanied by a vast and diverse flow of immigrants from throughout Europe. Tolerance was a watchword. A visitor observed that residents "seemed not concerned what religion their neighbor is of, or whether hee hath any or none". Only Papists and Jews were not free to openly live their faiths.
The last census before the Revolution showed 22,000 people in NY in 1771. Thousands fled before the British arrived in August, 1776. In the end there were only 5,000 residents left in the city. Tories rallied to the city and by Yorktown, there were 33,000 in NY. Evacuation Day came on November 25, 1783. Only after Waterloo, though, did British immigration to NY pick back up. It took until 1824, the 200th anniversary of New Amsterdam, for the population to exceed 100,000. From that point on, NY added 100,000 people per decade. Even before the famine, the Irish were the largest group of immigrants to the city. Unskilled laborers were the dominant percentage of the Irish immigrants. In 1845, 36% of the residents were foreign born and of those, there were more Irish than all the other nationalities combined. A decade later, there more foreign born than native. The famine caused 1.5 million people to leave Ireland and two-thirds of them came to NY. "The famine Irish were the most impoverished immigrants to ever arrive in the US and the least prepared for life in NY." They were totally lacking in any skills and many did not speak English.
Although at times it seemed to be an Irish metropolis, between 1852-4, the city was flooded with Germans. There were 120,000 German New Yorkers on the eve of the Civil War. The residents of Kleindeutschland were skilled laborers and not day workers. They and the Irish found common political cause in the 1850's with their opposition to temperance and nativist movements. Both immigrant groups were indifferent to abolition and opposed to Lincoln, who did not carry the city. Notwithstanding their position, they believed in the US and rallied to the flag. The Irish in particular hoped that supporting the Union would show their commitment to America and overcome prejudice. The famous 69th regiment was part of the Irish Brigade, and after Antietam and Fredericksburg, their casualties were so high that they began to believe they were being sacrificed for the northern cause. The announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation followed. In the spring 1863, the Union defeat at Chancellorsville necessitated Lincoln's announcement of a draft*. On the 13th of July, the city's Irish led the 4 day draft riots that remain the most significant outbreak of civil violence in American history. The city's lack of enthusiasm for the war was again reflected in the 1864 elections. Lincoln garnered one-third of NY's vote and significantly less of the Irish. Notwithstanding the politics of the war, the city celebrated victory and deeply mourned the 16th President.
After the war, the proportion of German and Irish immigrants arriving in NY dropped to 53% in 1875, 43% in 1885 and 22% in 1895. The Statue of Liberty rose in NY harbor in 1887 and, because of the poem by Emma Lazarus - "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" - it came to symbolize a welcoming of immigrants to America. In the 1880's, fleeing pogroms, the Jews of the Russian Empire came, and a decade later, the Italians would outnumber all else who came. On the eve of WW1, Jews and Italians outnumbered Irish and German immigrants by a ratio of 9:1. "Hunger, political oppression, and a lack of economic opportunity drove most of the immigrants to the United States, just as these same factors had pushed the Irish and Germans to America before them." Racial hatred, violence and poverty were the primary motivating factors for eastern Europe's Jews. For the four million Italians who arrived between 1880 and 1914, grinding poverty was the impetus. Ellis Island was the welcoming point from 1892 onward. The processing at Ellis Island was the most important step in the progress of the immigrants and the story remembered and retold for life.
Like the Germans and Irish before them, it was to the Lower East Side that the Jews and Italians went. It was almost always the first step in America. Many of the immigrants to America came in serial fashion; i.e. one, followed by another and eventually, the rest of the family. However, the Jews came as families and thus, there were more women and children, leading to tremendous crowding on the Lower East Side. Up until the 1892 banning of garment work in the tenements, the crowding was compounded by all those working at home. The garment workers and peddlers desired more and moved up to become cigar makers, butchers, bakers and painters. They began to move to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. By 1920, 1.6 million Jews lived in NY, three-quarters of them in Brooklyn and the Bronx. "Yet until their dying day, the city's eastern European Jewish immigrants considered their years on the Lower East Side their formative American experience."
Across the Bowery to the west was 'Little Italy'. There, and in east Harlem, the Italians began the upward climb from punishing poverty and overcrowded tenements just as the Jews and Irish had before them. However, because trans-Atlantic crossings were now cheap and fast, many Italians would work in the warm weather and return to Italy in the winter. As they became assimilated, they too moved to the outer boroughs, and because they apparently cared much more about what they ate than their predecessors, the boroughs provided an opportunity to tend gardens and grow fresh vegetables, thus ameliorating some of the pains of being in the city.
Reform in the lives of NY's immigrants started with Jacob Riis' 'How the Other Half Lived', a book filled with photographs raising the premise that it was the horrid conditions of the tenements, and not their occupants, that were behind the poverty, violence and depravity of the slums. Housing codes were passed, various groups started settlement houses, hospitals were built, parks were squeezed into the neighborhoods, unions were formed, and after the tragedy of the Triangle Waist Company fire in 1911, the Progressives acted to improve working conditions in New York State. Unfortunately, nativist principles and the 'otherness' of the recent arrivals along with a post-war outbreak of anarchy, led to the National Origins Act of 1924 which reduced by 95% immigration from eastern and southern Europe. It was one of the most significant laws ever passed in America. Immigration was capped at 150,000 and a country of origin system was enacted. The 'huddled masses' were barred. "Over the course of the next forty years, until Congress repealed the act, immigrants would play a diminishing role in New York." Immigration was so sparse that Ellis Island was closed in 1954.
Immigration in the 50's picked up when hundreds of thousands of Americans from Puerto Rico came to NY. Meanwhile the quota system was increasingly attacked and actually was touted by the communists as a symbol of American hypocrisy. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act imposed a quota of 150,000 for the western hemisphere and 170,000 for the eastern. Family members of citizens were exempt and further exceptions were made for those fleeing communism, thus, in both instances, significantly increasing the number of Asians entering the country. In NY, Dominican, Chinese and West Indians dominated the new wave. Of the three, the Chinese story is most similar to those of their predecessors. Many were illegal, smuggled into the country as part of an extensive and elaborate system. Fujianese succeeded Cantonese and spread out throughout the city. They worked in restaurants and hard as it is to believe, they did piece work at home, like the Jews a hundred years earlier and re-established NY's garment industry. The Dominicans and West Indians were quicker to the outer boroughs and now dominate Brooklyn and Queens#. As it has for almost four centuries, the city continues to change, evolve and process people like a great machine from dreams to becoming Americans.
"Today, 3.2 million of NY's 8.5 million residents, 37 percent of the total, are immigrants." That's the same percentage as in 1900. For the record, the percentage in 1851 was 55%, the all-time high. "Today's immigrants are no different from previous generations of newcomers." Many are suspected and feared. The author, grandson of Jewish immigrants, points out that every single argument made today against Muslims was made for a hundred years about the Irish Catholics. Fear of the new and unknown is part of our tradition. That said, "New York is the promised land, looking green, fat, luscious and joyous from the outside; the promised land flowing with milk and honey." I hope it never changes.
I am a third generation American. My great, great-grandfather came to NY, with his wife and son in tow, sometime in the 1850's, approximately a hundred years before I was born. How is it then that the immigrant experience is such a part of my take on the world? I suspect some of it is that my parents, dutifully told the stories of those who came before. I also think that a significant part of it is that in those first hundred years, no one had made the step up from the immigrant experience, still living lives of blue collar poverty, very close to the neighborhoods they arrived in. Thus, this book resonates for me and touches upon my greatest interest and fascination with America and our history. American stories - how people came from everywhere and how they strived to achieve the dream - has always, and will always fascinate me.
*I believe my great-grandfather, David Barry, entered the Union Army in 1863. Although he may have been drafted, it is more likely that he accepted the bonuses that were behind the enlistment of the immigrants, as only citizens were eligible for the draft.
#The community my family lived in for 14 years, Cambria Heights, in Queens, is now a West Indian and Haitian enclave. Flushing, also in Queens, where I lived and worked for 7 years, is now almost exclusively Korean and Chinese. Ironically, the neighborhood in Brooklyn where I started school is still almost all working-class white ethnics.
The Dutch came to New Amsterdam in 1624. Trade in furs was the city's first business. Over the 60 years of Dutch rule, six thousand immigrants, many indentured servants, came to the New World. The colony became New York in 1664. It would take until the early 18th century for NY to be Anglicized and for there to be more English than Dutch speakers. The English and later Scotch immigrants were of a higher caliber than those that went to many of the other colonies. They were not indentured servants and often were businessmen from London. Anglicization was accompanied by a vast and diverse flow of immigrants from throughout Europe. Tolerance was a watchword. A visitor observed that residents "seemed not concerned what religion their neighbor is of, or whether hee hath any or none". Only Papists and Jews were not free to openly live their faiths.
The last census before the Revolution showed 22,000 people in NY in 1771. Thousands fled before the British arrived in August, 1776. In the end there were only 5,000 residents left in the city. Tories rallied to the city and by Yorktown, there were 33,000 in NY. Evacuation Day came on November 25, 1783. Only after Waterloo, though, did British immigration to NY pick back up. It took until 1824, the 200th anniversary of New Amsterdam, for the population to exceed 100,000. From that point on, NY added 100,000 people per decade. Even before the famine, the Irish were the largest group of immigrants to the city. Unskilled laborers were the dominant percentage of the Irish immigrants. In 1845, 36% of the residents were foreign born and of those, there were more Irish than all the other nationalities combined. A decade later, there more foreign born than native. The famine caused 1.5 million people to leave Ireland and two-thirds of them came to NY. "The famine Irish were the most impoverished immigrants to ever arrive in the US and the least prepared for life in NY." They were totally lacking in any skills and many did not speak English.
Although at times it seemed to be an Irish metropolis, between 1852-4, the city was flooded with Germans. There were 120,000 German New Yorkers on the eve of the Civil War. The residents of Kleindeutschland were skilled laborers and not day workers. They and the Irish found common political cause in the 1850's with their opposition to temperance and nativist movements. Both immigrant groups were indifferent to abolition and opposed to Lincoln, who did not carry the city. Notwithstanding their position, they believed in the US and rallied to the flag. The Irish in particular hoped that supporting the Union would show their commitment to America and overcome prejudice. The famous 69th regiment was part of the Irish Brigade, and after Antietam and Fredericksburg, their casualties were so high that they began to believe they were being sacrificed for the northern cause. The announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation followed. In the spring 1863, the Union defeat at Chancellorsville necessitated Lincoln's announcement of a draft*. On the 13th of July, the city's Irish led the 4 day draft riots that remain the most significant outbreak of civil violence in American history. The city's lack of enthusiasm for the war was again reflected in the 1864 elections. Lincoln garnered one-third of NY's vote and significantly less of the Irish. Notwithstanding the politics of the war, the city celebrated victory and deeply mourned the 16th President.
After the war, the proportion of German and Irish immigrants arriving in NY dropped to 53% in 1875, 43% in 1885 and 22% in 1895. The Statue of Liberty rose in NY harbor in 1887 and, because of the poem by Emma Lazarus - "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" - it came to symbolize a welcoming of immigrants to America. In the 1880's, fleeing pogroms, the Jews of the Russian Empire came, and a decade later, the Italians would outnumber all else who came. On the eve of WW1, Jews and Italians outnumbered Irish and German immigrants by a ratio of 9:1. "Hunger, political oppression, and a lack of economic opportunity drove most of the immigrants to the United States, just as these same factors had pushed the Irish and Germans to America before them." Racial hatred, violence and poverty were the primary motivating factors for eastern Europe's Jews. For the four million Italians who arrived between 1880 and 1914, grinding poverty was the impetus. Ellis Island was the welcoming point from 1892 onward. The processing at Ellis Island was the most important step in the progress of the immigrants and the story remembered and retold for life.
Like the Germans and Irish before them, it was to the Lower East Side that the Jews and Italians went. It was almost always the first step in America. Many of the immigrants to America came in serial fashion; i.e. one, followed by another and eventually, the rest of the family. However, the Jews came as families and thus, there were more women and children, leading to tremendous crowding on the Lower East Side. Up until the 1892 banning of garment work in the tenements, the crowding was compounded by all those working at home. The garment workers and peddlers desired more and moved up to become cigar makers, butchers, bakers and painters. They began to move to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. By 1920, 1.6 million Jews lived in NY, three-quarters of them in Brooklyn and the Bronx. "Yet until their dying day, the city's eastern European Jewish immigrants considered their years on the Lower East Side their formative American experience."
Across the Bowery to the west was 'Little Italy'. There, and in east Harlem, the Italians began the upward climb from punishing poverty and overcrowded tenements just as the Jews and Irish had before them. However, because trans-Atlantic crossings were now cheap and fast, many Italians would work in the warm weather and return to Italy in the winter. As they became assimilated, they too moved to the outer boroughs, and because they apparently cared much more about what they ate than their predecessors, the boroughs provided an opportunity to tend gardens and grow fresh vegetables, thus ameliorating some of the pains of being in the city.
Reform in the lives of NY's immigrants started with Jacob Riis' 'How the Other Half Lived', a book filled with photographs raising the premise that it was the horrid conditions of the tenements, and not their occupants, that were behind the poverty, violence and depravity of the slums. Housing codes were passed, various groups started settlement houses, hospitals were built, parks were squeezed into the neighborhoods, unions were formed, and after the tragedy of the Triangle Waist Company fire in 1911, the Progressives acted to improve working conditions in New York State. Unfortunately, nativist principles and the 'otherness' of the recent arrivals along with a post-war outbreak of anarchy, led to the National Origins Act of 1924 which reduced by 95% immigration from eastern and southern Europe. It was one of the most significant laws ever passed in America. Immigration was capped at 150,000 and a country of origin system was enacted. The 'huddled masses' were barred. "Over the course of the next forty years, until Congress repealed the act, immigrants would play a diminishing role in New York." Immigration was so sparse that Ellis Island was closed in 1954.
Immigration in the 50's picked up when hundreds of thousands of Americans from Puerto Rico came to NY. Meanwhile the quota system was increasingly attacked and actually was touted by the communists as a symbol of American hypocrisy. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act imposed a quota of 150,000 for the western hemisphere and 170,000 for the eastern. Family members of citizens were exempt and further exceptions were made for those fleeing communism, thus, in both instances, significantly increasing the number of Asians entering the country. In NY, Dominican, Chinese and West Indians dominated the new wave. Of the three, the Chinese story is most similar to those of their predecessors. Many were illegal, smuggled into the country as part of an extensive and elaborate system. Fujianese succeeded Cantonese and spread out throughout the city. They worked in restaurants and hard as it is to believe, they did piece work at home, like the Jews a hundred years earlier and re-established NY's garment industry. The Dominicans and West Indians were quicker to the outer boroughs and now dominate Brooklyn and Queens#. As it has for almost four centuries, the city continues to change, evolve and process people like a great machine from dreams to becoming Americans.
"Today, 3.2 million of NY's 8.5 million residents, 37 percent of the total, are immigrants." That's the same percentage as in 1900. For the record, the percentage in 1851 was 55%, the all-time high. "Today's immigrants are no different from previous generations of newcomers." Many are suspected and feared. The author, grandson of Jewish immigrants, points out that every single argument made today against Muslims was made for a hundred years about the Irish Catholics. Fear of the new and unknown is part of our tradition. That said, "New York is the promised land, looking green, fat, luscious and joyous from the outside; the promised land flowing with milk and honey." I hope it never changes.
I am a third generation American. My great, great-grandfather came to NY, with his wife and son in tow, sometime in the 1850's, approximately a hundred years before I was born. How is it then that the immigrant experience is such a part of my take on the world? I suspect some of it is that my parents, dutifully told the stories of those who came before. I also think that a significant part of it is that in those first hundred years, no one had made the step up from the immigrant experience, still living lives of blue collar poverty, very close to the neighborhoods they arrived in. Thus, this book resonates for me and touches upon my greatest interest and fascination with America and our history. American stories - how people came from everywhere and how they strived to achieve the dream - has always, and will always fascinate me.
*I believe my great-grandfather, David Barry, entered the Union Army in 1863. Although he may have been drafted, it is more likely that he accepted the bonuses that were behind the enlistment of the immigrants, as only citizens were eligible for the draft.
#The community my family lived in for 14 years, Cambria Heights, in Queens, is now a West Indian and Haitian enclave. Flushing, also in Queens, where I lived and worked for 7 years, is now almost exclusively Korean and Chinese. Ironically, the neighborhood in Brooklyn where I started school is still almost all working-class white ethnics.
The Orphan Master's Son, Johnson - B +, Inc.
This brilliant novel was published five years ago, won a Pulitzer, and was recommended to me by Greg Weiss. The first half of the book is about Jung So, who was raised in an orphanage, trained as a tunnel rat for the Army, assigned to a unit that kidnapped people off Japanese beaches and was then sent to language school. Able to understand and transcribe English, he was placed on a a fishing boat as an intelligence officer. Although the story rambles, it entices by telling of the extreme poverty, absurd philosophies and baffling primitive life of the people in North Korea. The fishing boat, some leftover Soviet wreck, has no running water, toilets or even a life raft. And the sailors don't expect those comforts. The home port has a new tin factory because the old one gave everyone botulism and of course, there is no medicine or doctors, so lots of people simply die. And they often die in the dark, because there's no electricity at night in the Hermit Kingdom. Throughout North Korea, there are loudspeakers in almost all work places and dormitories reporting on news, warning about the next American sneak attack and singing the praises of the ruling family.
Perhaps it was a personal distraction, but I got so confused in the second chapter, where the book turns from one to three narrators, that I gave up. It involves a somewhat ditzy Kim Jong Il and a truly flaky set of twists and turns. The book is invariably described as brilliant. That said, I am comforted by the 'New Yorker' review that says "the Candide-like picaresque of the first half - with its absurd but fully plausible turns of the screw - persuasively evokes life under brutal totalitarianism, the identity-switching and intrigue of the second part seem to originate in little more than the need to spin a yarn. When Johnson echoes the plot of 'Casablanca', the absurdity that characterizes life in a totalitarian state devolves into narrative improbability."
Although I elected to not finish this book, I acknowledge its brilliance and appreciate the insights into a very different, and by my assessment, very strange place.
Perhaps it was a personal distraction, but I got so confused in the second chapter, where the book turns from one to three narrators, that I gave up. It involves a somewhat ditzy Kim Jong Il and a truly flaky set of twists and turns. The book is invariably described as brilliant. That said, I am comforted by the 'New Yorker' review that says "the Candide-like picaresque of the first half - with its absurd but fully plausible turns of the screw - persuasively evokes life under brutal totalitarianism, the identity-switching and intrigue of the second part seem to originate in little more than the need to spin a yarn. When Johnson echoes the plot of 'Casablanca', the absurdity that characterizes life in a totalitarian state devolves into narrative improbability."
Although I elected to not finish this book, I acknowledge its brilliance and appreciate the insights into a very different, and by my assessment, very strange place.
Journey Into Fear, Ambler - B +
Eric Ambler was one of Britain's great mid-century authors of spy and suspense thrillers. He had an uncanny ability to write novels that were made into movies, which is how I stumbled across this 1940 masterpiece set in Istanbul, the Aegean, Athens, and Genoa. Graham (Joseph Cotten in the film) is a British naval engineer who attracts the murderous intentions of the Germans. His local contact and the police chief, Col. Haki (Orson Welles) decide to send him home on an Italian freighter, rather than the Orient Express. Unfortunately, the German killer, as well as his boss, is also aboard. Their plan is to assassinate Graham in Genoa when he leaves the ship. Somewhat implausibly, he slays a bunch of bad guys in a pretty weak finale. The story is somewhat dated, but Ambler had a mastery of the English language.
The Last American CEO, Vines and Cappy - C +
This brief book is about American Motors, the hodgepodge of an auto company composed of Nash, Hudson and Packard, surviving on Rambler when it acquired Jeep in 1970. A hook-up with Renault in the 70's provided it with capital to withstand a series of losses in the 80's and saddled AMC with the Renault Alliance. Before the sub-compact was hurt by warranty costs, it won a Motor Trend Car of the Year award. Joe Cappy was appointed CEO, and while AMC continued to struggle with its Renault automobiles, but began to enjoy success with the Jeep brand. Jeep had caught Chrysler's attention and in 1987, Chrysler purchased AMC. Jeep blossomed under Chrysler and today is the stalwart that continues to prop up the latest iteration of the parent company.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)