Angel Island : immigrant gateway to America

Format:

Book

Title:

Angel Island : immigrant gateway to America

Author:

Lee, Erika.

ISBN:

9780199734085

9780199896158

Publication Information:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Physical Description:

[xxvii], 394 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Contents:

Introduction -- Guarding the Golden Gate : the life and business of the immigration station -- "One hundred kinds of oppressive laws" : Chinese immigrants in the shadow of exclusion -- "Agony, anguish, and anxiety" : Japanese immigrants on Angel Island -- "Obstacles this way, blockades that way" : South Asian immigrants, U.S. exclusion, and the Gadar movement -- "A people without a country" : Korean refugee students and picture brides -- In search of freedom and opportunity : Russians and Jews in the promised land -- "El norte" : Mexican immigrants on Angel Island -- From "U.S. nationals" to "aliens" : Filipino migration and repatriation through Angel Island -- Saving Angel Island -- Epilogue : The legacy of Angel Island.

Summary:

"From 1910 to 1940, over half a million people sailed through the Golden Gate, hoping to start a new life in America. But they did not all disembark in San Francisco; instead, most were ferried across the bay to the Angel Island Immigration Station. For many, this was the real gateway to the United States. For others, it was a prison and their final destination, before being sent home. In this landmark book, historians Erika Lee and Judy Yung (both descendants of immigrants detained on the island) provide the first comprehensive history of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Drawing on extensive new research, including immigration records, oral histories, and inscriptions on the barrack walls, the authors produce a sweeping yet intensely personal history of Chinese paper sons, Japanese picture brides, Korean students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino repatriates, and many others from around the world. Their experiences on Angel Island reveal how America's discriminatory immigration policies changed the lives of immigrants and transformed the nation. A place of heartrending history and breathtaking beauty, the Angel Island Immigration Station is a National Historic Landmark, and like Ellis Island, it is recognized as one of the most important sites where America's immigration history was made. This fascinating history is ultimately about America itself and its complicated relationship to immigration, a story that continues today. Angel Island is the official publication commemorating the immigration station's 100th anniversary"--Provided by publisher.

Corporate Subject:

Angel Island Immigration Station (Calif.) -- History.

Angel Island Immigration Station (Calif.) (OCoLC)fst01651171

Subject(s):

Angel Island Immigration Station (Calif.) -- History.

San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) -- Emigration and immigration.

Geographic Term:

San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) -- Emigration and immigration.

California -- San Francisco Bay Area.

Genre:

History.

Added Author:

Yung, Judy.

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	325.73 Lee 2010	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island immigration station in San Francisco served as the processing and detention center for over one million people from around the world. The majority of newcomers came from China and Japan, but there were also immigrants from India, the Philippines, Korea, Russia, Mexico, and over seventy other countries. The full history of these immigrants and their experiences on Angel Island is told for the first time in this landmark book, published to commemorate the immigration station's 100th anniversary. Based on extensive new research and oral histories, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America examines the great diversity of immigration through Angel Island: Chinese "paper sons," Japanese picture brides, Korean refugee students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino workers, and many others. Together, their stories offer a more complete and complicated history of immigration to America than we have ever known. Like its counterpart on Ellis Island, the immigration station on Angel Island was one of the country's main ports of entry for immigrants in the early twentieth century. But while Ellis Island was mainly a processing center for European immigrants, Angel Island was designed to detain and exclude immigrants from Asia. The immigrant experience on Angel Island-more than any other site-reveals how U.S. immigration policies and their hierarchical treatment of immigrants according to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and gender played out in daily practices and decisions at the nation's borders with real consequences on immigrant lives and on the country itself. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America is officially sponsored by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. Proceeds will benefit the Foundation.

Author Notes

Erika Lee is Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Judy Yung is Professor Emerita of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her books include Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island and Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Arriving on the heels of Robert Eric Barde's Immigration at the Golden Gate (CH, Mar'09, 46-4016), Angel Island is a valuable contribution to the emerging interpretation of the history of the immigration station at San Francisco. Lee (Minnesota) and Yung (emer., Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) probe their subject more broadly and deeply than do the authors of other works on the subject. While they cover some of the same ground as Barde in addressing the comparatively understudied entry of Chinese on the West Coast, these authors go further by probing the diversity of the immigrant experience. Theirs is an expansive, inclusive, and empathetic treatment that encompasses the experiences of Japanese, South Asian, Korean, Jewish, Mexican, and Filipino arrivals, as well as the Chinese. Thoroughly researched and documented, the book is published in conjunction with the restoration of the entry point as a historic site. Lee and Yung's attention to class and gender as well as race provides both personal and scholarly context for the many newcomers who have until recently been ignored and underrepresented in popular and academic studies of US immigration. Summing Up: Highly recommended. For a wide variety of academic and public libraries as well as general readers. C. K. Piehl Minnesota State University, Mankato

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xv
A Note on Language and Terminology	p. xxi
Abbreviations	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
Chapter 1 Guarding the Golden Gate: The Life and Business of the Immigration Station	p. 29
Chapter 2 ôOne Hundred Kinds of Oppressive Lawsö: Chinese Immigrants in the Shadow of Exclusion	p. 69
Chapter 3 ôAgony, Anguish, And Anxietyö: Japanese Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 111
Chapter 4 ôObstrcles This Way, Blockades That Wayö: South Asian Immigrants, U.S. Exclusion, and the Gadar Movement	p. 145
Chapter 5 ôA People Without A Countryö: Korean Refugee Students and Picture Brides	p. 177
Chapter 6 In Search of Freedom and Opportunity: Russians and Jews in the Promised Land	p. 211
Chapter 7 El Norte: Mexican Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 247
Chapter 8 From ôU.S. Nationalsö To ôAliensö: Filipino Migration and Repatriation through Angel Island	p. 273
Chapter 9 Saving Angel Island	p. 299
Epilogue: The Legacy of Angel Island	p. 315
Appendix	p. 327
Notes	p. 333
Bibliography	p. 373
Index	p. 389

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