Oral History Project and Chapters Seven & Eight Reading Questions

Oral History Research Project 

(Due in class on Wednesday, 10/2, and on TurnItIn.com)

• Please conduct an Oral History interview of a person who immigrated to the United States.
• Your interviewee must have been old enough at the time to remember details about his or her country of birth.
• Develop a series of specific questions prior to your interview. What do you want to know?
• What can you find out through research before you meet for the interview?
• What can you find out only by experiencing the person’s face-to-face presence?
• During the interview, attempt to find answers to the questions you have developed. After the interview, attempt to fill any gaps that remain.
• Be sure to record your interview in some manner. This recording or transcript of your interview is a primary source document and should not be discarded.
• Write a paper that attempts to answer one or more of your questions using the recording or transcript of your interview as a primary source. 3-4 pages. 

CLICK FOR SHORT BIO

For Monday's class, please read Chapter Seven and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What changes were there in the "means" of immigration in this period? Did conditions improve?
• What was notable about the immigration of Italians in this period?
• Which groups from the Mediterranean had the highest rates of return migration?
• What political event occurred in Italy in the mid-1800's that spurred a lot of emigration?
• Where did Italians go in America, and what were their occupations?
• What was the role of the immigrant banker?
• What was the padroni system?
• Why did so few Italians send their children to Catholic schools?
• What, according to Daniels, is the most controversial aspect of the Italian American experience?
• Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?
• Why is it difficult to determine how many Greeks came to the United States?
• What occupations did Greeks pursue?
• What do the businesses of Greek, Italian, and Chinese immigrants have in common?
• Until recently, what was the religion of the majority of Arab immigrants to the United States?
• What did Arab immigrants do for a living?
• Why did Armenians emigrate and where did they go?

For Wednesday's class, please read Chapter Eight and consider the following questions:

• When did most Eastern European immigrants begin to arrive in the United States?
• Where did they settle, and what did they do for a living?
• What did they do before they emigrated, and why did they go to America?
• How does the 1910 census data indicate how many Poles came to America?
• What role did Polish Nationalism play in the immigrants experience?
• Why did Eastern European Jews emigrate?
• Where did they settle, and what did they do for a living?
• How did the Eastern European Jewish immigrant's experience differ from other immigrants of the same period?
• What was the Triangle Shirt Waist fire of 1911?
• What were the differences/conflicts between Eastern European Jews and other American Jews?
• What does the complex story of the Hungarian family on page 234 illustrate best about immigration?
• What were working conditions in American industry like?