HST 134 - Immigrants to America since 1890

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement HU and is a linked (IL) course.
This course surveys immigrant groups and their struggles to acculturate within the United States in language, education, and social mores. Acculturation to the diversity of the U.S. society was often limited and still limits newcomers and their children who experience prejudice that misjudges their intelligence and abilities, especially within the English only mentality of the United States. In this course we read accounts written by first generations of a wide range of immigrant groups recounting their lives adapting to American language, culture, education, and social traditions. Students will experience the lives of immigrants through memoir, family stories, and media representations of the ethnicities in film and documentaries. We will aim to recapture the lives of those who postponed and still seek full membership in the benefits of American society for the hopes of their families in the future. We are a nation of immigrants and therefore it is important to know how the diversity of our history enriched and shaped us.