Lit in Translation

Ellis Island: A People's History

Wyspa klucz

Małgorzata Szejnert (born 1936)

Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

English editions

In English

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For some sixty years, from the 1890s until the 1950s, the small island in New York harbour was where newcomers to the United States were processed; close to twelve million passed through. For most it took a few hours. Others were held for months for medical checks and quarantine, and some were deported, since the law excluded the sick, the penniless, the supposedly immoral and those who could not pay their onward fare. The reportage follows Polish, Jewish, German and Italian migrants, and also the people who ran the station, from physicians and translators to inspectors and the women employed to escort single travellers, with many archive photographs.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Nonfiction
Length
315 pages in the original
Genres
Migration, Historical (assigned by AI)
Set in
United States, 1890s–1950s
First published
2009 by Znak
Author's age
73 when first published
ISBN

9788324011612 (original)

9781950354054 (Scribe US, United States)

9781911617976 (Scribe UK, United Kingdom)

9781957363028 (Scribe US, United States)