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The first full history of America’s landmark port of entry, from immigration post to deportation center to
mythical icon.
Description: For most of New York’s early history, Ellis Island had been an obscure little island that
barely held itself above high tide. Today, the small island stands alongside Plymouth
Rock in our nation’s founding mythology as the place where many of our ancestors first
touched American soil. Ellis Island’s heyday—from 1892 to 1924—coincided with the
greatest mass migration of individuals the world has ever seen, with some twelve million
immigrants inspected at its gates. In American Passage, Vincent J. Cannato masterfully
illuminates the story of Ellis Island from the days when it hosted pirate hangings witnessed
by thousands of New Yorkers in the nineteenth century, to the turn of the twentieth
century when massive migrations sparked fierce debate and hopeful new immigrants
often encountered corruption . . . [ more ].
Praise for American Passage . . .
"To his great credit Cannato does not pretend to answer our tough questions about immigration, nor to find a
'usable past' in the history of Ellis Island. He just tells one heck of a story that oozes with relevance." —Walter A. McDougall,
winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Throes of Democracy
"Reading Vincent Cannato's American Passage was an amazing journey into our nation's immigrant past. Never before
has Ellis Island been written about with such scholarly care and historical wisdom. Highly recommended!" —Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge
"Immigration has long been a critical slice of the American narrative, and here, in American Passage, Vincent Cannato
tells its story with great brio. From landing point to national Monument, from immigrants to interpreters, we see
the veritable Babel of Ellis Island play out across the years." —Jay Winik, author of The Great Upheaval and April 1865
"Ambitious in scope and rooted in good storytelling." —Kirkus
"Essential Reading" —Starred review, Library Journal
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Vincent J. Cannato is associate professor of history at the University of
Massachusetts, Boston. He received his BA with honors in Political Science
from Williams College and his PhD in History from Columbia University. At
UMASS-Boston, Prof. Cannato teaches courses on New York City history, Boston
history, immigration history, and twentieth-century American history.
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Listen to Vincent Cannato discuss American Passage on WAMU-FM's the "Diane Rehm Show." (7/2/09)
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