The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (Interdisciplinary Studies in History)

Rating:
Summary: Intersting & Convincing Rebuttal to Handlin's "The Uprooted"
Review: John Bodnar's "The Transplanted" is a broad interpretive study of how immigrants in America endured the "swirl of interaction" between economic and societal forces by providing order and stability to their lives. Bodnar begins with an analysis of the situations immigrants faced in their homelands, beginning around the 1830s, and ties these old world experiences with experiences faced in America up to 1930. In large part, Bodnar's study is a reaction to Oscar Handlin's "The Uprooted." In this work, Handlin argued that immigrants were victimized by their transatlantic migration as the institutions they held most dear--property, religion, family, and tradition--were destroyed or rendered irrelevent. Bodnar, however, counters this argument by maintaining that immigrants were not forced to passively abandon their traditions by dominant American influences. Immigrants, in fact, were prepared for their migration from experiences at home and resisted societal, religious, and political pressures when such pressures threatened the economic and social stability in their lives.

Bodnar's work is very impressive in that he takes historical evidence about the lives of immigrants in America and applies it to interpretations offered by other historians (in particular, Oscar Handlin). Bodnar is thus able to mount a convincing argument against common beliefs about American immigrants. Bodnar also explains to the reader that the subject of American immigration is highly complex. Various groups of people emigrated to America for various reasons and had different experiences after their arrival. The immigrant experience was not homogeneous save for two points: their interrelationship with capitalism and their need to provide for their own welfare and that of their family-household. Certain details about immigrant behavior are explained too simply, however. For example, Bodnar notes that the reason the lower classes in the homeland did not emigrate was because they could not afford to do so. Could there also be other reasons? Perhaps these lower classes were more attached to their homeland and were afraid of the unfamiliar. Perhaps they were unaware of the possible benefits of emigration and were also ignorant of how one could leave the homeland.

European immigrants are the focus of this study. Japanese, Chinese, and Mexican groups are also discussed but not in as much detail. A more thorough examination of non-European groups, particularly the Chinese, would make "The Transplanted" a more complete study. What is more, the study focuses on the male experience and neglects the reactions of female immigrants. This omission seems odd considering the date of this study (1985). Finally, the work may be burdened by the numerous and lengthy examples Bodnar offers. For example, one-quarter of the chapter on church and society is devoted to two examples of the exploits of two religious leaders. Otherwise, Bodnar's "The Transplanted" offers a convincing argument that the American immigrant had more understanding and control of their situation than what may have been previously thought by many historians.