Audiobook13 hours
The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War
Written by David Laskin
Narrated by Erik Synnestvedt
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants-never more so than in 1917 when the nation entered the First World War. Of the 2.5 million soldiers who fought with U.S. armed forces in the trenches of France and Belgium, some half a million-nearly one out of every five men-were immigrants. In The Long Way Home, David Laskin, author of the prizewinning history The Children's Blizzard, tells the stories of twelve of these immigrant heroes. Starting with their childhoods in Europe, Laskin unfolds the saga of their journeys to Ellis Island, their struggles to start over in the land of opportunity, and the ordeal of their return to Europe in uniform to fight-and win-a war that had already killed tens of millions.
Three of these soldiers died on the battlefield; two won the Congressional Medal of Honor; all were transformed forever by their experiences in combat. It is a transformation that continues to be felt in the pride and pain and cherished memories of immigrant families that have long since assimilated.
In tracing the lives of these twelve men, Laskin tells the story of an immigrant generation-a generation that streamed into this country in unprecedented numbers around the turn of the last century, that sweated to support their families through back-breaking physical labor, and that fought loyally for their adopted country on the battlefields of Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne forest.
Based on stories, letters, and diaries passed on by descendants-as well as Laskin's personal interviews with two foreign-born Doughboys who were still alive at the time he was researching the book, The Long Way Home is a reverent work of history and a deeply moving evocation of the dreams and sacrifice at the heart of the American experience.
Three of these soldiers died on the battlefield; two won the Congressional Medal of Honor; all were transformed forever by their experiences in combat. It is a transformation that continues to be felt in the pride and pain and cherished memories of immigrant families that have long since assimilated.
In tracing the lives of these twelve men, Laskin tells the story of an immigrant generation-a generation that streamed into this country in unprecedented numbers around the turn of the last century, that sweated to support their families through back-breaking physical labor, and that fought loyally for their adopted country on the battlefields of Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne forest.
Based on stories, letters, and diaries passed on by descendants-as well as Laskin's personal interviews with two foreign-born Doughboys who were still alive at the time he was researching the book, The Long Way Home is a reverent work of history and a deeply moving evocation of the dreams and sacrifice at the heart of the American experience.
Author
David Laskin
David Laskin is the author of The Children's Blizzard, winner of the Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award for nonfiction and the Washington State Book Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian magazine. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Reviews for The Long Way Home
Rating: 4.166666666666667 out of 5 stars
4/5
6 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I saw Ellis Island in the title and picked up this book because my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in 1910. He was 25, single, and his papers said his last residence was Avellino Italy. I thought it might shed some light on what he went through when he came to America.So I expected that this was going to be the story of how immigrants who arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s became assimilated into American society. Laskin certainly does cover that subject, and covers it very well. However, in addition to the specific stories of 12 different immigrants he follows from their birthplaces in various countries, their immigration and landing at Ellis Island, their first jobs in America, and then their participation in WWI, to their return to the US, their later lives and their deaths, he gives us a detailed overview of US immigration policy, and the role and influence of immigrants in US society.As he expounds on the immigration issues, one can't help but draw comparisons to the debate raging in our country today. In 1914, one in three people living in the US was an immigrant or child of an immigrant. They did not learn English, they stayed in small enclaves of people who spoke their language, worshiped their same god, ate the same food. It was not until the US entered the war, and these men joined the armed services (almost all of them willingly) to fight for the US against what was for some of them their native countries, that they became not "kikes, jews, wops, & polacks," but Yanks one and all. The bonding that took place on the battlefield transcended language, religion, and customs; the friendships formed lasted lifetimes.By following the lives of these twelve men and their families (4 Italians, 1 Norwegian, 1 Irish, and the others Slavs and Jews from Russia and the Russian Pale) he gives us a picture of hardship, loyalty, and determination. We get a history lesson and a humanity lesson. I think he sums it up toward the end: The only great thing about the Great War was the scale. So why did they fight? The question was especially fraught for America's immigrant soldiers. To fight for your own country is an inescapable part of the social contract. In exchange for the benefits of a secure civil society, we offer our bodies and, if need be our lives, in time of war. But the foreign born were asked, indeed forced to serve without having executed the social contract in full. In the streets of America, they were aliens, but in no man's land they were expected to fight as fervently as native born Americans. And for the most part, they did. It was that loyalty in action that changed everything. They righted the imbalance of the social contract not by protesting, but paradoxically by submitting. Their pride in serving won them, and their families, the status they could never have gained without the war. In a war remembered more for senseless slaughter than for courage, the service of the foreign born shines. Nearly a hundred years later, it's one of the few things about the great war that still does.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I wanted to to like this book, the war stories are right up my alley, but I just found the writing a struggle and couldn't get through the book. The writing just dragged, but if you can get through that, the people themselves are interesting.Audiobook note : ok narrator, a bit droll (maybe that's what made the book drag)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book, by the guy who wrote The Children's Blizzard (which I read 9 Aug 2005), is a carefuly researched account of 12 men who were immigrants to the USA or sons of immigrants, and their time in the old country, how they came to come to this country, and their experiences in the Great War. I found the account of their youth, their experiences in arriving in the US, and what they did after the war full of interest. The account of the experiences on the battlefields of Europe did tend to pall for me, since some of it was deduced rather than actual--to be expected since this book was written long after all had died, though the author did actually talk to at least one of the men. The book causes one to shudder over the senselessness of way the war was carried on, though the men who did the fighting could not be blamed for that in any way. So while not unfailingly intriguing for me, on balance and after I had finished the book, I found I was glad I read it and it carries vivid memories for me--including a poignant account of Hutterites who refused to fight and underwent a tortured time till the war was over.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I enjoy reading history books that focus on real people, and tell stories from viewpoints not usually found in textbooks. David Laskin has done just that in The Long Way Home. He tells the story of a dozen World War I veterans – immigrants all -- who served their adopted country before becoming citizens. Like today, many Americans of that age looked upon immigrants with some disdain, doubting that they had what it took to serve in the American military. After all, many of the dozen characters David Laskin focuses on in The Long Way Home came to America specifically to avoid military service in their home countries. All twelve enlisted or were drafted into the US Army or Marines to serve overseas in the Great War -- and they all proved the doubters wrong. Some were killed in action, some won the Congressional Medal of Honor. All served bravely.David Laskin tells their stories with heart, sensitivity and respect, relying primarily on historical research, genealogical fact-finding and interviews with the men’s descendants – and, in two cases, with the veterans themselves. The Long Way Home is an amazing story, start to finish. Readers will be amazed at the obstacles these men overcame simply in getting to America – and the prejudice and hardships with which they had to contend once they arrived. I read and enjoyed one of Mr. Laskin’s other books, The Children’s Blizzard. I liked The Long Way Home even more. I can strongly recommend this book, even for readers who don’t often seek out war histories. The Long Way Home is much more than that.