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1On the Trail of The Immigrant

By Edward A. Steiner

How did the immigrants come to America? Who were they? What Where did they come from? In this book, Edward Steiner tells of the experiences of immigrants from Hungry, Poland, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and many other countries as they leave everything and board a boat to an unknown future. Steiner was born to a well-to-do Jewish-Slovak-Hungarian family in a Carpathian village, and was educated in Vienna and Heidelberg and immigrated to the United States in 1886. His later American experiences are quite incredible, precisely because it seems that he made every effort not to miss any of the steps of the immigration experiences; not only the familiar sweatshop saga of his fellow east European Jews, but also metal works in Pittsburgh; mining with Poles in Pennsylvania; cropping for the Amish; being Jailed for months for having been indirectly involved in a strike; getting trapped on a railway bridge as the train was running against him; being brutally mugged in Chicago; being shoved off a cattle train car in Ohio while on his way to becoming a rabbi in the East Coast; and finally, finding a warm Christian home in a small Mid-Western town with a pastor and his wife. Ultimately, in this environment, and under the continuing inspiration of Tolstoy, he became a Christian and a pastor himself, and ever active for progressive causes. This is an important book in the history of immigration. - Summary by Phil chenevert

Edward Steiner spent his life figuring out how America manages to take in aliens from all over the world, who bring with them a huge diversity of beliefs, habits, ethics, prejudices, expectations, etc., throws them into the "melting pot", and within a few generations most are shaped into full blooded Americans. This rarely happens in Europe, where people move from country to country but rarely become countrymen. Steiner, a wonderful writer, relates his own experience as a young penniless immigrant who, after becoming successful, devoted his life to helping newcomers adjust, lecturing around the world and writing numerous books on immigration. This one is his personal story: his arduous trek from home country to the American "sweat shop, the mills and mines with their grinding labor, the open courts, the jail, the open road with its dangers", experiences in American homes and schools and the Christian Church, his evolution from Jew to Christian minister, University Professor, and immigration scholar. ~ Summary by Michele Fry