Britons to America: Oral Narratives of English, Scottish and Welsh Emigrants to the Land of Plenty

This book breaks new ground in the study of British emigration to the United States from the 1860s to the 1930s through the analysis of interviews with English, Scottish and Welsh emigrants collected during the Great Depression era by the Federal Writers’ Project, and mainly from the 1990s by the Ellis Island Museum fieldworkers.

These sources shed light on a period of massive emigration from Great Britain - the first three decades of the twentieth century and the Great Depression age - which has largely been neglected by researchers. The volume traces the experiences of the men and women who left for America by dwelling upon the pre-emigration, emigration proper, and post-emigration phases, and identifies common aspects in Britons’ migratory experience along with differences due to age, gender and nationality. The author puts to the test the widespread notions of British immigrants’ economic success and cultural ＂invisibility＂ in America and reveals evidence which clearly challenges the image of Britons as successful immigrants who blended into American society relatively quickly and easily.

The book will appeal to scholars, researchers, students, and general readers in the fields of British history, American history, oral history, and migration.

Mario Varricchio holds a doctorate in English Studies from the University of Florence and a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh. His previous books include Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecoming from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (2012; ed.) and Lontane da casa: donne italiane e diaspora globale (2015; ed. with Stefano Luconi). He currently teaches English at a secondary school in Padua.