The Uprooted (2nd ed.)

[On title page continuing after the title of book: By Oscar Handlin, Copyrighted 1951, 1979 (renewed), Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 333 pages]

---

About the Author

Oscar Handlin, the son of working-class Russian Jewish immigrants, was born on September 29, 1915 in New York City. He was intellectually self-motivated, and his lifestyle was filled with changes and adjustments until his teenage years: his transitions to different high schools, for instance, and the family's changes in residency and employment.(1) Handlin is known as the author of The Uprooted, which won the Pulitzer Prize(2) in 1952; and also as an American historian, whose specialty lies in the "pioneering works in the fields of immigration history, ethnic history, and social history."(3) It is interesting to note that he wanted to be a historian before he was eight-years old; and that perhaps based on his personal and academic experiences, according to Ueda, these two things helped shape Handlin's perception of historical change and enhance his research applications to immigration, social, and ethnic histories.(1)

About the Book

In The Uprooted, Oscar Handlin tells the tale and the history of immigrants in America: from their hard and struggling lives in poverty in their homelands, to the point when they leave their native homelands, to their crossing overseas, to their adjustments to the strange new environment in America, and finally, to the effects of the lives of future younger generations. American history is neither sufficient nor complete without the mention of immigrants, for "[they] were American history" (p. 3)! Handlin emphasizes that emigration itself was the most overwhelming and harshest experience the immigrants faced upon entering America. Like the title of the book suggests, these immigrants were "uprooted," in that their roots were pulled out of the familiarity of the traditional upbringings of the environments of their homelands and were now replanted into a strange, unfamiliar ground called "The America Soil." Thus, as a result of emigration, Handlin presents the immigrants' perspective of the consequences and at times, the heart-wrenching emotions of alienation. Readers can see the immigrants' struggles of living, assimilating, and accommodating to the different lifestyle of America as they realize what it means to be a foreigner, to be separated from home, and to have the desire to belong within the American society, and at the same time, to preserve their ethnic, cultural, and even religious identity.

Handlin seems to cover all aspects how these immigrants were "uprooted." For example, the security of relationships within the village of the Old World was no longer visible in the New World. Upon the departure from their native lands, it was virtually impossible to bring along with them the assistance and counsel they had depended on. In replacement, there was neither privacy nor familiarity as they encountered other immigrants who did not speak their own language nor had the same customs like they did. They shared the same living environment in the city slums and had to learn to cope with one another's differences.

Despite designating America as the land of freedom and opportunity, it is the most disturbing yet interesting to note that the relatives of the foreigners "could not get it out of their heads that in America the streets were paved with gold" as they asked for "a coat and a piece of land" (p. 233)! These relatives do not realize the consequences and the emotions amounted to the harsh reality of alienation and being "uprooted." How can one buy a piece of land for the relatives if he/she is still struggling to support the family? Here, we should note that there is a wide gap in wealth and status between these peasant immigrants to those of the native Americans. There are no such things as instant wealth or status on the immigrants' perspective, for their hopes are pinned on their offspring, who will accommodate more readily and quickly to the American lifestyle.

The question of whether or not an immigrant became an American reflected one's insecurity of retaining one's qualities of a human being and one's virtues and values as an individual. This journey from the native land to America also affected these immigrants psychologically, because it did not seem to matter if one worked or starved or fell to illness continuously, one would still feel isolated and alienated from the rest of the American society and even within one's family. These immigrants knew that they had to start from scratch and tried their best to toil and sweat until their offspring will grow up and hopefully will provide some form of reprieve through their successes (or failures) of assimilation and accommodation.

Commentary

The Uprooted is a superb book that illustrates many examples to our understanding of American character and continuity. For example, even though an immigrant may hold dear what is left of his culture and customs, religion was a way of life that he can identify himself with and know that he belongs in its society. Even though these immigrants sought to establish the same atmosphere of religion in this new environment with their own places of worship, ironically there is not really a universal religion in America even today, despite a high amount of church attendance. Indeed, we held some origins in the Protestant and Puritan way of life, but because of immigration, there is no set religion. One cannot restore the old religious ways to a new environment.

Another important factor of American character and continuity lies heavily in our work ethics. We work hours longer than our Eastern counterparts, and because of the Calvinistic influence, we are guilt-ridden if idle. And despite the laws in this time period restricting the number of hours work, we do not want this to limit our opportunity to earn the capital which we can spend it to our needs. This is quite evident in this book, because the male provider/spouse-immigrant worked longer hours to scrape every penny earned to support his family and to pay for the daily necessities, such as food, water, clothing, and shelter. As a result of this, oftentimes, the separation between the spouses created such tensions that the family is in danger of falling apart, and thus, the wife has no choice, but to resort to switch from a nurturing "Susie Sunshine" wife/mother to a dominant co-provider as well. Unfortunately, this is terribly degrading on the male provider's perspective, because it is dehumanizing to his character as "the man, the provider, and the support" of the household. Furthermore, life is work and work is life for these immigrants. They can only think of the present instead of the past. Whatever experiences they had in the Old World are of no use to the New World of America.

Finally, the most important factor of American character and continuity is the immigrants themselves. America grew and expanded rapidly with an increase in population. And because of their disparaging experiences in their native countries, they were willing to take risks to make the journey here to America and were optimistic, with the faith that they can accomplish something in America. Fortunately, with the population increase, this stimulated the national market, because raw materials can then be turned into other uses and products because of the fluidity of society—there are more than enough hands to do the work.

Generally, the content of the book contributed a great deal to the course, because it depicts examples and brings up the concept of American character and continuity as discussed earlier. In many ways, it makes sense that Americans think and act the way they are, not only because immigration altered the immigrants, but it also altered America (p. 4). This book is worth reading if one wants to understand the history of immigration and its ripple-effect throughout time. It is crucial to note how Handlin lays out the blueprint of the book. Each chapter of the book is a story within itself, but yet builds upon or discusses another aspect of the immigrants' life in American society. It is like a social hierarchy from peasantry to a "better life" (or in some cases, a "richer life"), so to speak.

In addition to this, we should note that because of our long history of free immigration, there were legislations then passed to regulate the flow of immigrants in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, and to exclude such people, such as: the paupers, the illiterates, the Chinese, criminals, and even believers in anarchism and in polygamy (p. 256-59). The American society wanted the best individuals, and thus, competition in the industry and within the society itself selected those who were the fittest and the most skilled to enter the workforce and the American ground. It was disappointing, however, when the peasants would teach themselves to read, for instance, and therefore passed the literacy test, which Wilson had enacted into law in 1917 (p. 259). What's the use of passing these legislations when immigrants will find ways to circumvent them? Quotas were then set up, and the flow of immigration finally slowed. The reader might disagree with Handlin's assertion, in that "Americans will then face the question of whether the old expansiveness society will persist without the stimulus of an increasing population" (p. 261). We do not have to doubt that! There will be expansion and persistence, even with the increasing population, because of the younger generations who are born on the American soil. Furthermore, even if our industry is heavily dependent on technological advances, we would still have a never-ending supply of workers to operate the machinery, even if it does not seem like we would need any more manual labor, because of efficiency.

Another noticeable element to the story itself is Handlin's continuing use of misfortune: loneliness because of alienation; frustration because living and working conditions are poor and unsanitary; disappointments because it is difficult to establish familiarity and association with other individuals who are different from one's group; and even despair, because familial relationships are oftentimes broken up, so that it is less of a burden to take care of one's self than a whole family. The reader may at times ask the question: "Then why move if life in America is so difficult? Why not stay or return to your native country?" Ironically, the immigrants continued to flock over to America on the concept of freedom and opportunity, because they were forced to move to America, because of famine, war, and poverty back in the native country. It is also unfortunate to note that all of these immigrants were peasants. No matter what these peasants did, they will never climb up the social rank in their native land and will forever be peasants. Thus, we can conclude that the peasants all gambled their lives and any scrape of money they earned to establish a life they can have at least some glimpse of hope to, unlike the hopeless poverty status in their native countries. Finally, the two decades after the great immigration of the nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, Handlin commented on the improvements the later generations had and how far they had come. For example, most of the ghettos and slums are turned into quite decent living quarters, people are exercising democracy, work and life are now separate because leisure is added, and so on.

In conclusion, The Uprooted has a lasting, yet profound effect on me. It is interesting to note that this book is a reflection of Handlin's personal experiences, because like the immigrants, his family used to move around quite a bit, and his father switched around to various jobs as well. Furthermore, this book should inspire everyone today, because our past families were all immigrants. It is also a reflection of us, especially our diversity, because we came from all over the world to America. Is America designated as perhaps the "Promised Land"? It must be so, because we each have our own reasons to be here, be it opportunity, jobs, a new start, adventure, relief from famines, wars, religious prosecutions, and so on. This book makes one appreciate the differences in cultures and ethnicity, because if one just abandons his/her culture, does he/she lose his/her identity and become American? What is the true American? This book addresses the definition of American, and Handlin concluded that even WASP and Protestant, Germanic or Teutonic origins are not quite applicable to everyone, because then this would conflict with the second or later generations of youth who were born on the American soil. If I were to relate this book to my family for example, my parents and their parents would be the ones with the hardships, struggling; whereas the younger generation, like me, would be the first-generation individuals to be born in America, and act as a bridge between the American lifestyle and my culture, translating for my parents and at the same time, trying hard not to forget how to speak in my parents' native tongue. Truly, Handlin hits the core of emotion and realization, when we must find it in ourselves to sympathize with all immigrants and our ancestors who were once "uprooted" and tried to pave way for the younger generations to be successful and have opportunity to live the American Dream.

Notes

1. Reed Ueda. [Academic Search Premier] "Immigration and the Moral Criticism of American History: The Vision of Oscar Handlin," Canadian Review of American Studies, 21 (1990) 2: 183-202.

2. Columbia University Press. "Oscar Handlin, Historians, U.S., Biographies," Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. [cited 10 Feb. 2005]; available from website @ http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/H/Handlin.html; Internet.

3. BookRags, Inc. “Biography of Oscar Handlin.” [cited 10 Feb. 2005]; available from website @ http://www.bookrags.com/biography/oscar-handlin/; Internet.

---

--Book review by Kathy Nguyen [February 17, 2005, HIST 2334, Prof. McFadden-Instructor]