1.27.2003



The Hands That Built America




I went to see Gangs of New York, which i was excited to see having read the book "How the Irish Became White" by Noel Ignatiev, which got me interested in Irish immigration and it's impact on American society.
On thursday in my useless Business class, (actually the course title is "Git you some Bid'ness") the instructor, while reading a passage about a successful Asian immigrant entrepreneur, editorialized various "These people in your country..." comments; not altogether a dissimiliar sentiment from that of "Bill the Butcher" in Gangs. So have we learned any lessons from the turbulent past?
This link is to a January 21 Financial Times article entitled: "Lessons from the last war on terror" about the demonizing of immigrants in the early 20th century leading to the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. But, i see the article is archived for subscribers now. So if you are an FT subscriber or would like to become one...