Journey To America

For use in schools and libraries only. In 1938 Lisa Platt, her mother and sisters attempt to flee Nazi Germany to Switzerland, and then to America where her father waits for them

Journey to America is a beautiful collection of biographies celebrating 20 of America’s most inspiring first- and second-generation immigrants.

With a foreword by Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee. Ruth Gruener was a hidden child during the Holocaust. At the end of the war, she and her parents were overjoyed to be free. But their struggles as displaced people had just begun.In war-ravaged Europe, they waited for paperwork for a chance to come to America. Once they arrived in Brooklyn, they began to build a new life, but spoke little English. Ruth started at a new school and tried to make friends -- but continued to fight nightmares and flashbacks of her time during World War II.The family's perseverance is a classic story of the American dream, but also illustrates the difficulties that millions of immigrants face in the aftermath of trauma.This is a gripping and human account of a survivor's journey forward with timely connections to refugee and immigrant experiences worldwide today.

Nearly seven million Muslims live in the United States today, and their relations with non-Muslims are strained. Many Americans associate Islam with figures such as Osama bin Laden, and they worry about “homegrown terrorists.” To shed light on this increasingly important religious group and counter mutual distrust, renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed conducted the most comprehensive study to date of the American Muslim community. Journey into America explores and documents how Muslims are fitting into U.S. society, placing their experience within the larger context of American identity. This eye-opening book also offers a fresh and insightful perspective on American history and society. Following up on his critically acclaimed Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization (Brookings, 2007), Ahmed and his team of young researchers traveled for a year through more than seventyfive cities across the United States—from New York City to Salt Lake City; from Las Vegas to Miami; from the large Muslim enclave in Dearborn, Michigan, to small, predominantly white towns like Arab, Alabama. They visited homes, schools, and over one hundred mosques to discover what Muslims are thinking and how they are living every day in America. In this unprecedented exploration of American Muslim communities, Ahmed asked challenging questions: Can we expect an increase in homegrown terrorism? How do American Muslims ofArab descent differ from those of other origins (for example, Somalia or South Asia)? Why are so many white women converting to Islam? How can a Muslim become accepted fully as an “American,” and what does that mean? He also delves into the potentially sticky area of relations with other religions. For example, is there truly a deep divide between Muslims and Jews in America? And how well do Muslims get along with other religious groups, such as Mormons in Utah? Journey into America is equal parts anthropological research, listening tour, and travelogue. Whereas Ahmed’s previous book took the reader into homes, schools, and mosques in the Muslim world, his new quest takes us into the heart of America and its Muslim communities. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of America today.

This dramatic true story--told by the daughter of Russian immigrant Jehuda Weinstein--reveals the joys, fears, and eventual triumph of a family who realizes its dream. Full color.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) visited the United States in 1831 as an assistant magistrate of the French government. His great work Democracy in America was published in 1835. This volume contains all of the notebooks Tocqueville kept during his American journey.

A Kurdish American Story Have you ever been forced out of your home? Have you faced poverty, war, lived in a refugee camp, started a new life somewhere very different? I want to share my story with you so you know who I am. What I have been through being a refugee. Growing up without a father. Going through and learning from the different stages of my life. Starting a new life in a country that is unique, a struggle and a place for endless opportunities. I invite you to read this book to learn about a new culture, the diversity in the United States and my story from childhood to adulthood. Whether you are open to different cultures and welcome diversity in this country or not. I hope that this book educates you on stories of people like me who appreciate everything this country has given them. Finding a safe haven and having the opportunity to grow up in this country has made me the person I am today. We sometimes tend to be skeptical and phobic of others who are in this country. We ask what if to the unknown? Though remembering that the United States was founded on immigration and the greatest minds who came here to make this country the best it is. We are a nation of many nations and by having a simple conversation with someone who is different than you will bring a new way of thinking. Join me in learning about my life, my journey to America.

Amerikafahrt by Wolfgang Koeppen is a masterpiece of observation, analysis, and writing, based on his 1958 trip to the United States. A major twentieth-century German writer, Koeppen presents a vivid and fascinating portrait of the US in the late 1950s: its major cities, its literary culture, its troubled race relations, its multi-culturalism and its vast loneliness, a motif drawn, in part, from Kafka's Amerika. A modernist travelogue, the text employs symbol, myth, and image, as if Koeppen sought to answer de Tocqueville's questions in the manner of Joyce and Kafka. Journey through America is also a meditation on America, intended for a German audience and mindful of the destiny of postwar Europe under many Americanizing influences.