Ellis Island and the Peopling of America: The Official Guide

This history of the place H. G. Wells once called "quietly immense" is a fine contribution to our understanding of how central immigrants have been to the American experience. Virginia Yans-McLaughlin and Marjorie Lightman, both historians, track the great historic waves of migration by which America was peopled following the first arrival of settlers from the British Isles; assemble documentary evidence of reaction to these newcomers, both hostile and sympathetic; and provide a set of study guides and questions for the use of high school students.