"The Uprooted" Revisted

In 1952, Harvard historian Oscar Handlin won the Pulitzer Prize for a new retelling of “the epic story of the great migrations that made the American people.” Combining poetic prose with sociological insights, he sought to reveal the inner lives of the immigrants who came to America. Handlin wrote at a time when immigration was not a “hot-button” issue. Today, when many Americans view immigrants unsympathetically, is Handlin’s compassionate interpretation still relevant? That is only one of the questions this class will consider as we read and discuss The Uprooted together.