A magisterial history of immigrant groups and their contributions to the making of the modern American West

Winner, 2008 Theodore Saloutos Award

At a time when immigration policy is the subject of heated debate, this book makes clear that the true wealth of America is in the diversity of its peoples. By the end of the 20th century the American West was home to nearly half of America's immigrant population, including Asians and Armenians, Germans and Greeks, Mexicans, Italians, Swedes, Basques, and others. This book tells their rich and complex story—of adaptation and isolation, maintaining and mixing traditions, and an ongoing ebb and flow of movement, assimilation, and replenishment. These immigrants and their children built communities, added to the region's culture, and contended with discrimination and the lure of Americanization. The mark of the outsider, the alien, the nonwhite passed from group to group, even as the complexion of the region changed. The region welcomed, then excluded, immigrants, in restless waves of need and nativism that continue to this day.

"

An engaging and complex work, From All Points makes a persuasive case for the centrality of immigrants to the growth of the West.Autumn 2008

"

This book is a cleary written, hefty synthesis of American immigration literature.Fall 2008

"

From All Points is a remarkable synthesis of the West as a region of immigrants. It tells the story of how vital immigrants were to economic growth and modernization. This will be the prime reference for 21st century scholars of immigration and ethnicity in the American West. Spring 2010

"

Written in the fashion of Oscar Handlin, this study makes a convincing case that immigration history comprises an essential part of the history of the American West, and that appreciation of the former and the roles played by myriad alien arrivals is essential for understanding the latter. . . . Barkan (emer., California State Univ.) combines vignettes based on immigrant reminiscences with keen analysis to explore four related themes: various groups' arrivals, their economic influences, their effects on public policy, and their adaptation and assimilation. The resulting narrative is readable and informative. . . . Recommended.

"

Within this handsome volume, Barkan has set a benchmark for further research in the varied histories of immigrants from all pointsFall 2008

"

From All Points deserves high praise for a number of good things, including meticulous research, expert synthesizing, keen conceptualization, and rich narrative. More important, Barkan's ambitious project does a great service to western historians who have longed for an overview of immigration. Spring 2009

"

. . . important demographic profiles, and on a meticulous reading of the vast secondary literature that is so masterfully synthesized here.Summer 2007

"

Elliott Robert Barkan comes ideally equipped for the task of this book . . . By including vignettes of individual life stories, he manages to capture both the forest and the trees of the immigrant experience, and puts a human face on many of the general tendencies and developments he describes.October, 2009