Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1820–1870: How the First Great Wave of Immigrants Made Their Way in America

Dr. Berquist has provided us with a richly informative and beautifully written account of American immigrants and their lives during this time period. I had the privilege of taking several of his courses in graduate school. He is an outstanding scholar whose work informed my teaching for four decades.

I write about people in the 18th & 19th century this book has a wealth of information in it.

Interesting book, smooth transaction. Recommend.

Our family is a the stage where we're trying to piece it all together-- the history, the stories, how our great grandparents got here. This book hit us like a ton of bricks with its clear, frank descriptions of ports, immigration trends and the historical catalysts behind the migration. We're sitting around the table reading this thing and we're holding back tears at some of the details, and realizing this is who we are. This is it.

This book has some enlightening details about the daily life of an ordinary immigrant to America in the 1830s and 1840s. The book's discussion of the period after 1850 unfortunately emphasizes larger political events, instead of continuing to portray the lives of immigrants.