UMass Boston

The Immigrant Experience

Course #: AMST 405, Class #: 7157, Section #: 01

Description

Through letters, essays, autobiography, fiction, film, oral and written history, the course explores the historical and cultural issues raised by native-born Americans (Anglos) and immigrants (Aliens) who were involved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in defining the sometimes agonizing process of becoming an American. Representative documents reveal a variety of conflicting views about the process and meaning of Americanization: from the defensive essays of Anglo-Saxon supremacists, through Jane Addams' sensitive witness of immigrant life, the letters, diaries and accounts of immigrants, and two works of immigrant fiction.

Prerequisites

Junior level standing and 2 AMST courses, or Permission of Instructor