Good Americans Italian and Jewish Immigrants During the First World War [Paperback]

Among the Americans who joined the ranks of the Doughboys fighting World War I were thousands of America's newest residents.Good Americansexamines the contributions of Italian and Jewish immigrants, both on the homefront and overseas, in the Great War. While residing in strong, insular communities, both groups faced a barrage of demands to participate in a conflict that had been raging in their home countries for nearly three years. Italians and Jews did their bit in relief, recruitment, conservation, and war bond campaigns, while immigrants and second-generation ethnic soldiers fought on the Western front. Within a year of the Armistice, they found themselves redefined as foreigners and perceived as a major threat to American life, rather than remembered as participants in its defense. Wartime experiences, Christopher Sterba argues, served to deeply politicize first and second generation immigrants, greatly accelerating their transformation from relatively powerless newcomers to a major political force in the United States during the New Deal and beyond.

Sterba recognizes the unique complexity of the process by which identity is constructed and suggests thatthe impact of the war on immigrant consciousness was to no small extent a function of the specific cultural background of each group, the local socioeconomic and political realities each faces in America, and the military units in which its members served...This is a generally interesting, informative, and well-textured book. --New York History

A well-researched and well-argued monograph. For anyone interested in immigration, urban or, World War One history. --H-Net Reviews

Good Americansprovides rich detail on the role of the state and federal government, especially the military, in the lives of ordinary immigrants. --American Jewish History

Christopher M. Sterbareceived his Ph.D. in American history frol£¡