Abstract
The process of migration includes the movement between relatively distant geographical locations as well as often facing considerable cultural differences between the sending and receiving countries. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, millions of emigrants from East Central Europe and Southern Europe sought their personal dreams in America, but had painfully little information at their disposal about the country, and were consequently in for a considerable “culture shock.” This paper examines the possible sources of information for soon-to-become transatlantic migrants from Europe in general, and from Hungary in particular. It analyzes the various types of “booster literature,” along with the people who had an interest in its publication, and offers a case study of handbooks and guidebooks written specifically for Hungarian emigrants to America during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Keywords: migration history, Hungarian emigration to the United States, information literature
Recommended Citation
Vida, István Kornél. "'The New World is An Other World': Hungarian Transatlantic Emigrants' Handbooks and Guidebooks, 1903-1939." AHEA: E-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Volume 6 (2013): http://ahea.net/e-journal/volume-6-2013/8
Biography
István Kornél Vida is an assistant professor at the North American Department, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen, Hungary. He earned his Ph.D. in History 2008 at the University of Debrecen. His research interests include nineteenth-century history of the United States, with particular focus on the Civil War era and migration history, as well as Hungarian-American history. He has published two monographs on the Hungarian Forty-Eighters’ involvement in the American Civil War, including Hungarian Émigrés in the American Civil War: A History and Biographical Dictionary (2011). He is co-founder (2012) and Secretary of the Center for International Migration Studies in Debrecen. He is currently working on a new monograph on the historical memory of the Great Transatlantic Emigration in Hungary.