This collection of short autobiographies, compiled and edited by Hamilton Holt, offers eye-opening accounts of how ordinary Americans lived and worked at the turn of the 20th century. The contributors to this collection were anonymous, drawn from various vocations of American society. The occupations range from laborers to dressmakers to domestic servants to peddlars and bootblacks. A minority of the accounts are dictated, but the bulk are written or edited from manuscripts solicited by the original publisher. We witness a society which had, owing to decades of immigration from around the world, become industrious and diverse. Several contributors to this collection are first generation immigrants; for many the conditions of the United States at the time were jarringly different. Some yearn for their homelands, and for the comforts and customs which they left behind, while others openly admire the attitude and values of the country they have come to call home.

'A splendidly readable collection that offers an indispensable glimpse into the world experienced by the undistinguished, everyday Americans of the books title a necessary and welcome addition to any research library or course syllabus.' - Timothy A. Hickman, Social History Society

Hamilton Holt, editor of The Independent, collected these touching autobiographies of ordinary people--new immigrants and sharecroppers, cooks and fishermen, women and men working in sweatshops, in the city, and on the land. First published in 1906, and reissued a decade ago, this new edition of Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans is expanded to include lives Holt did not include in his original selection, as well as a new preface by Werner Sollors.

This collection of short autobiographies, compiled and edited by Hamilton Holt, offers eye-opening accounts of how ordinary Americans lived and worked at the turn of the 20th century. The contributors to this collection were anonymous, drawn from various vocations of American society. The occupations range from laborers to dressmakers to domestic servants to peddlars and bootblacks. A minority of the accounts are dictated, but the bulk are written or edited from manuscripts solicited by the original publisher. We witness a society which had, owing to decades of immigration from around the world, become industrious and diverse. Several contributors to this collection are first generation immigrants; for many the conditions of the United States at the time were jarringly different. Some yearn for their homelands, and for the comforts and customs which they left behind, while others openly admire the attitude and values of the country they have come to call home.

Sixteen Radio Address Presented Over WEVD August 6 To September 24.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

"from reviews of the first Routledge edition: "
"Entirely charming"
Jonathan Yardley, "Washington Post"
"A marvelous little book . . . . With no varnish or self-pity, . . . people who never achieved anything notable (except decency and dignity) tell the stories of their lives. A Chinese laundry-man, a Polish woman sweatshop worker, a farm wife--all considered themselves ordinary and all were extraordinary. Heroes come in a lot of funny shapes."
Molly Ivins, "Ms Magazine"
"To see the Florida seabed through a Conch sponge fisherman's water glass is as rich and strange as to sit in a Lithuanian log house at the turn of the century and listen, with a boy's ears, to an old shoemaker reading subversive literature... The voices that emerge [are] as vivid as the scratchings of an Edison cylinder."
Edmund Morris, The New Yorker
"The so-called undistinguished Americans generally speak in their own words; at times their writing is rough-hewn, even mundane, but informed with the rousing emotions of immigrants trying to succeed in a new land, of native-born Americans struggling against the prejudices of their fellow countrymen. The book recreates a bygone era by serving up the stuff of day-to-day life."
"Publishers Weekly"
Hamilton Holt, editor of "The Independent", collected these touching autobiographies of ordinarypeople--new immigrants and sharecroppers, cooks and fishermen, women and men working in sweatshops, in the city, and on the land. First published in 1906, and reissued a decade ago, this new edition of "Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans" is expanded to include lives Holt did not include in his original selection, as well as a new preface by Werner Sollors.

"from reviews of the first Routledge edition: "
"Entirely charming"
Jonathan Yardley, "Washington Post"
"A marvelous little book . . . . With no varnish or self-pity, . . . people who never achieved anything notable (except decency and dignity) tell the stories of their lives. A Chinese laundry-man, a Polish woman sweatshop worker, a farm wife--all considered themselves ordinary and all were extraordinary. Heroes come in a lot of funny shapes."
Molly Ivins, "Ms Magazine"
"To see the Florida seabed through a Conch sponge fisherman's water glass is as rich and strange as to sit in a Lithuanian log house at the turn of the century and listen, with a boy's ears, to an old shoemaker reading subversive literature... The voices that emerge [are] as vivid as the scratchings of an Edison cylinder."
Edmund Morris, The New Yorker
"The so-called undistinguished Americans generally speak in their own words; at times their writing is rough-hewn, even mundane, but informed with the rousing emotions of immigrants trying to succeed in a new land, of native-born Americans struggling against the prejudices of their fellow countrymen. The book recreates a bygone era by serving up the stuff of day-to-day life."
"Publishers Weekly"
Hamilton Holt, editor of "The Independent", collected these touching autobiographies of ordinarypeople--new immigrants and sharecroppers, cooks and fishermen, women and men working in sweatshops, in the city, and on the land. First published in 1906, and reissued a decade ago, this new edition of "Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans" is expanded to include lives Holt did not include in his original selection, as well as a new preface by Werner Sollors.