From The Other Side: A Critical Study Of Edward Steiner'S Approach To Twentieth-Century Immigration

Abstract

The dissertation focuses on neglected aspects of the history of immigration in the United States during the turn of the twentieth century. Reviving the writings of Edward Steiner, the dissertation also explores the representations of immigration in his fictional works, The Mediator: A Tale of the Old World and the New (1907) and The Broken Wall Stories of the Mingling Folk (1911) as well as his nonfiction book, On the Trail of the Immigrant (1906). In these works, Steiner interweaves his immigration experiences with those of his fellow immigrants. His first novel, The Mediator, shows that both the hybridity of religion and the combined role of ghettoization and other community structures in their hometown and New York’s Lower East Side shaped the experiences of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Relatedly, Steiner’s short story collection, The Broken Wall, challenges assumptions about the turn-of-the-century immigrants’ reactions to assimilation. Exploring what Steiner termed as “mingling,” the second chapter of this dissertation demonstrates that he envisioned the incorporation of immigrants into mainstream America as an individual, selective process tailored to the immigrants’ choices and needs to adapt to their new home country. Examining On the Trail of the Immigrant, the third chapter contextualizes Steiner’s critiques of and experiences with the immigration journey. This chapter reflects on Steiner’s criticisms of the steamship lines’ handling of the third-class travelers (commonly referred to as steerage), the admission process at Ellis Island, and his counterattacks on the Immigration Restriction League. This chapter also shows that Steiner’s views of the turn of twentieth-century immigration lodged East European immigrants’ experiences in the heart of America’s race saga.