American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation

Edited by: David Levinson and Melvin Ember
Published by Macmillan Reference USA

These two-volumes are the key to opening the door to the immigrant experience in the United States. This set covers 161 nonindigenous cultural groups currently living in the United States. It discusses both European groups that have been components of American culture for centuries and those groups who arrived in the twentieth century and are therefore less assimilated and more culturally distinct. From the Acadians to the Zoroastrians, it discusses the unique cultural characteristics of each group including detailed immigration and settlement histories, language, economic patterns, housing, religion, marriage, family and kinship, relations with other ethnic groups, as well as discrimination experienced by the group.

Review:

"The valuable new work includes lesser-known, smaller groups (e.g. Cham, Cape Verdean) -- group names are cross referenced. Articles and authors are listed following the preface. Photographs typically show family life, farming, crafts, entrepreneurship, national dress, or rituals...Recommended for undergraduate, graduate, research and large public libraries."
-- CHOICE (July/August 1998)

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