wunder · Library
Americans All, Immigrants All cover

Americans All, Immigrants All

by United States. Office of Education

By United States. Office of Education · Politics · Public domain

Start reading free → Jump to chapter 1

About this book

Americans All, Immigrants All is a public-domain classic of politics by United States. Office of Education.

The complete text is on this page and the chapter pages below — all 20 chapters, about 14,324 words (~1 hours of reading), free to read online with no signup.

Americans All, Immigrants All at a glance

Author
United States. Office of Education
Length
14,324 words · about 1 hours to read
Chapters
20
Price
Free — public domain

Learn more about politics

Short, fact-checked Wunder courses related to Americans All, Immigrants All — free to read, no signup. Or browse every course.

The Constitution: How American Government Actually WorksRead the document that runs the United States and see how its machinery operates in practice. You'll understand what each branch can and cannot do…90 min courseThe American RevolutionHow thirteen colonies broke from an empire and invented a republic.30 min coursePlato's Republic: Justice, Education, and PowerRead Plato's Republic as an argument about justice that moves through the city, the soul, education, political rule, and the dangers of an ideal…20 min courseA Vindication of the Rights of WomanRead Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 argument as a study of reason, education, independence, marriage, and the politics of private life.15 min courseDemocracy in AmericaFollow Tocqueville from equality of conditions through townships, associations, majority pressure, and the quiet risks of civic withdrawal and…15 min courseBrown v. Board of EducationSee how five communities and a long NAACP legal strategy converged in Brown v. Board—and why a constitutional ruling still required years of…20 min course

Read Americans All, Immigrants All online — full text

Part 1

AMERICANS ALL—IMMIGRANTS ALL

Twenty-six dramatic radio broadcasts, spotlighting the contributions of various cultural groups to the economic, social, and political development of the United States, presented by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Education, and the Columbia Broadcasting System with the cooperation of the Service Bureau for Intercultural Education, and assisted by the Works Progress Administration.

HAROLD L. ICKES Secretary of the Department of the Interior

WILLIAM DOW BOUTWELL Director, Radio Division, Office of Education

JOHN W. STUDEBAKER Commissioner of Education

RACHEL DAVIS-DUBOIS Director, Service Bureau for Intercultural Education

THE STAFF

Program Executive: PHILIP H. COHEN, Office of Education.

Writing: GILBERT SELDES, Director Television, Columbia Broadcasting System.

Research: PHILIP L. GREEN, Office of Education; RACHEL DAVIS-DUBOIS, Service Bureau for Intercultural Education; RUTH E. DAVIS, Office of Education.

Production: EARLE MCGILL and WILLIAM ROBSON, Casting Directors, Columbia Broadcasting System; MITCHELL GRAYSON, Office of Education.

Music: LEON GOLDMAN, Conductor, Columbia Broadcasting System; RUDOLF SCHRAMM, Office of Education; H. CHARLES PANTLEY, Office of Education.

Administrative: RICHARD P. HERGET, Business Manager. WM. A. WHEELER, JR., Assistant.

THE PROGRAMS AND THEIR PURPOSE

The “Americans All—Immigrants All” programs are designed to promote a more appreciative understanding of our growing American culture through the dramatization of the contributions made by the many groups which are a part of it. What brought people to this country from the four corners of the earth? What gifts did they bear? What were their problems? What problems remain unsolved? This series dramatically presents the story of “Americans All—Immigrants All.”

=1. Opening Frontiers.=—New trails are blazed, frontiers are pushed westward, and foundations of our great democracy are laid by newcomers from across the seas.

ADAMS, JAMES TRUSLOW. The March of Democracy; the Rise of the Union, Vol. I. Charles Scribner’s Sons, N. Y. 1932.

MORGAN, JAMES. The Birth of the American People. Macmillan Company, N. Y. 1930.

=2. Our English Heritage.=—Rich experiences in self-government and basic liberties are introduced by the English in colonizing the northern Atlantic seaboard.

BROOKS, VAN WYCK. The Flowering of New England. E. P. Dutton Co., N. Y. 1936.

WILLIAMS, ELLIS A., and FISHER, F. J. The Story of English Life. Coward-McCann, N. Y. 1936.

=3. Our Hispanic Heritage.=—The Spaniards build missions and bring Andalusian cattle and horses into the Southwest.

OTERO, N. Old Spain in Our Southwest. Harcourt, Brace and Company, N. Y. 1936.

SANTEE, ROSS. The Cowboy. Farrar and Rinehart, N. Y. 1928.

=4. Scots, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh.=—Sturdy Scotch-Irish and Scots, vanguard of march to the West, settle along frontiers. The Welsh, lovers of song, discover coal and develop our mines.

FORD, H. J. Scotch-Irish in America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J. 1915.

HARRIES, F. J. Welshmen in the United States. St. David’s Society, N. Y. 1927.

JAMES, BESSIE ROWLAND, and MARQUIS, JAMES. Courageous Heart. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, Ind. 1934.

Part 2

=5. Winning Freedom.=—Through cooperation and willingness to sacrifice both wealth and life, colonists win independence and preserve priceless principles and ideals.

BEARD, C. A. and M. R. The Rise of American Civilization. Macmillan Company, N. Y. 1937.

EATON, JEANETTE. Leader by Destiny. Harcourt, Brace and Company, N. Y. 1938.

=6. The Negro.=—From early colonial days, the Negro, who composes one-tenth of our population, plays large part in our economic and artistic life.

BRAWLEY, BENJAMIN. The Negro Genius. Dodd, Mead, and Co., N. Y. 1936.

BROWN, J. C. The Story of the American Negro. Friendship Press, N. Y. 1930.

WOODSON, CARTER G. The Negro in Our History. Associated Publishers, Washington. 1937.

=7. The French and Netherlanders.=—French fur traders and missionaries pioneer the Mississippi Valley; Netherlanders settle on Manhattan Island; French-Canadians work in lumber camps and mills of New England; diamond cutters come from Belgium; and French-speaking Swiss build up our cheese industry.

COFFIN, ROBERT P. T. Kennebec: Cradle of Americans. Farrar and Rinehart, N. Y. 1936.

REPPLIER, AGNES. Pere Marquette, Priest, Pioneer, Adventurer. Doubleday, Doran, and Co., N. Y. 1929.

WERTENBAKER, CHARLES. Before They Were Men. Liveright Publishing Co., N. Y. 1931.

=8. Upsurge of Democracy.=—Frontiersmen and newcomers unite to bring about decline of aristocracy. Eastern wage earners march in the ranks of the new democracy.

JAMES, MARQUIS. Life of Andrew Jackson. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 1938.

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. The Winning of the West. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, N. Y. 1895.

=9. The Irish.=—Sons of old Ireland develop canals, railroads, and factories, enter the ranks of public service, and bring song, humor, and literature of a high order.

DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (ELMER ELLIS, ed,). Mr. Dooley at His Best. Charles Scribner’s Sons, N. Y. 1938.

O’BRIEN, MICHAEL J. The Irish in the United States. Phoenix Ltd., Washington, D. C. 1914.

(Continued on page 15)

COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM November 13-May 7

Every Sunday Afternoon, 2:00 E.S.T.; 1:00 C.T.; 12:00 M.T.; 11:00 P.T.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In the Fall of 1935, President Roosevelt made the first allotment of funds to the Office of Education for educational broadcasting. In discussing the idea, he emphasized the need for programs that would make more significant the human struggle to achieve our freedom as safeguarded by our Constitution; the values of inter-American understanding and friendship; and the processes of building a finer and more enduring American culture by developing a greater appreciation of the rich heritages that have come to us through the many races and nationalities which make up our population.

Hence, the first series, “Let Freedom Ring,” traced the evolution of human freedom and presented the contributions which old-world settlers had made to our conception of civil liberty. Then came “Brave New World,” portraying the Latin-American contributions to democracy and to the general culture of the Americas. In April, 1938, the President in addressing the Daughters of the American Revolution unknowingly gave the title to the series “Americans All—Immigrants All” when he said, “Remember that all of us are descended from immigrants.”

(Continued on page 16)

What Brought Us to the United States?

Have you ever played with a magnet and a bunch of iron filings? Wasn’t it amazing to see the bits of iron leap across space to reach and cling to the magnet? This story is about a magnet much larger and more powerful than you have ever imagined—one 3,000 miles long and 1,500 miles wide. A different kind of magnet, too, one that attracted not iron filings, but human beings, real live people. A magnet that attracted every type and variety of human being alive! White people, black people, yellow people; Catholics, Protestants, Huguenots, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, Jews; Spaniards, Danes, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Bohemians, Italians, Austrians, Slavs, Poles, Roumanians, Russians—and I’ve only just begun; farmers, miners, adventurers, soldiers, sailors, rich men, poor men, beggar men, thieves, shoemakers, tailors, actors, musicians, ministers, engineers, writers, singers, ditch-diggers, manufacturers, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. That magnet was AMERICA.—From “We the People”—by LEO HUBERMAN.

Ever since the dawn of history, man has been on the move, restlessly seeking new environments in an effort to satisfy his physical and other needs. In the main, his wanderings have been local in character, highlighted by occasional mass migrations which have had a marked effect upon the history of the world. Among such mass migrations may be cited the migration of the Israelites from Palestine to Egypt, of the Germanic tribes into the Roman Empire, of the Saxons and Danes to England, of the Moors from the north of Africa to Spain, and of the Mongols and the Tartars from the Orient to Central Asia.

Great as these migrations were and important as their effect was on the course of history, they did not compare with the stream of humanity that began to flow to this country early in the seventeenth century—a stream that assumed flood proportions toward the close of the nineteenth century.

Part 3

Not only did the movement of peoples to our shores differ in magnitude from other migrations, it also differed in character. Whereas earlier mass migrations had consisted of the movements of tribes and distinct racial groups, the migration to the New World consisted of men of all races, nations, and creeds—a pageant of all the nations.

Great Historic Freedoms

What motives impelled these people to uproot themselves from their homelands and to transplant themselves to a country where it was necessary to adjust themselves to a new environment and culture pattern? Many came for the love of adventure, answering the challenge of the unknown. Some were mercenary soldiers seeking new exploits. Others came because they were friendless down-and-outers and “ne’er-do-wells,” seeking a chance to begin life anew. There were still others, like the Negroes, who although the majority did not come of their own free will, nevertheless contributed toil and labor to the making of America.

Commercial enterprise and the hope of economic gain have, of course, been important factors in the peopling of our country. So also has the search for freedom. In fact, the cherished moral ideals and objectives of the immigrants laid the foundations of our democratic ideals. These great historic freedoms include:

1. Religious liberty—freedom of conscience.

2. Personal and political liberty—freedom from political tyranny and oppression.

Continue reading Americans All, Immigrants All free in the Wunder reader →

Contents — all 20 chapters

More free classics to read

A Preface to PoliticsWalter LippmannThe Invisible GovernmentDan SmootCitizenship: a Manual for VotersEmma Guy CromwellAn Inquiry Into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its PerpetuationThorstein VeblenThe League of Nations and Its Problems: Three LecturesL. OppenheimThe Woman and the Right to VoteRafael PalmaThe Athenian Constitution385 BCE-323 BCE Aristotle"bethink Yourselves!"Leo Tolstoy

The Wunder Library · Learn anything · Home — complete public-domain books, free to read, with narration and illustrations. Americans All, Immigrants All is in the public domain.

© 2026 Wunder Learning LLC · Terms & Privacy