Reading Between the Lines

Immigration and the Idea of America

This series explores American history and identity through the lens of immigration.. Each session centers on a book selected by Luke Goble, a graduate student in the History Department of the University at Buffalo, SUNY.

	The series opens with a discussion of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which has influenced ideas about the American dream for over 200 years.
	This session is centered on Letters from an American Farmer, J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur's influential account of a foreigner trying to understand what makes someone "American."
	A discussion of The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America by John Bodnar, which explores the experience of immigrants coming to an increasingly urban America in teh late 19th and early 20th centuries.
	The series concludes with a conversation about A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Ronald Takaki's illuminating examination of what it means to be American in a multi-ethnic society.