From its earliest days under English rule, New York City had an unusually diverse ethnic makeup, with substantial numbers of Dutch, English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Jewish immigrants, as well as a large African-American population. Joyce Goodfriend paints a vivid portrait of this society, exploring the meaning of ethnicity in early America and showing how colonial settlers of varying backgrounds worked out a basis for coexistence. She argues that, contrary to the prevalent notion of rapid Anglicization, ethnicity proved an enduring force in this small urban society well into the eighteenth century.

Nothing happening in America today will do more to affect our children's future than the wave of new immigrants flooding into the country, mostly from the developing world. Already, one in ten Americans is foreign-born, and if one counts their children, one-fifth of the population can be considered immigrants. Will these newcomers make it in the U.S? Or will today's realities -- from identity politics to cheap and easy international air travel -- mean that the age-old American tradition of absorption and assimilation no longer applies? Reinventing the Melting Pot is a conversation among two dozen of the thinkers who have looked longest and hardest at the issue of how immigrants assimilate: scholars, journalists, and fiction writers, on both the left and the right. The contributors consider virtually every aspect of the issue and conclude that, of course, assimilation can and must work again -- but for that to happen, we must find new ways to think and talk about it. Contributors to Reinventing the Melting Pot include Michael Barone, Stanley Crouch, Herbert Gans, Nathan Glazer, Michael Lind, Orlando Patterson, Gregory Rodriguez, and Stephan Thernstrom.

This book deals with the formation of New York City’s multicultural character. It draws a sketch of the metropolis’ first big immigration waves and describes the development of immigrants who entered the New World as foreigners and strangers and soon became one of the most essential parts of the city’s very character. A main focus is laid upon the ambiguity of the immigrants’ identity which is captured between assimilation and separation, and one of the most important questions the book deals with is whether the city can be seen as one of the world’s greatest melting pots or just as a huge salad bowl inhabiting all kinds of different cultures. The book approaches this topic from an historical and a fictional point of view and concentrates on personal experiences of the immigrants as well as on the cultural impact immigration had on the megalopolis New York. "City of Nations" includes 43 historical photographs and illustrations which give an impression of the early immigrants as well as their living and working conditions.