Americans All - A Human Study of America's Citizens from Europe

Seabrook writes about a numerically enormous element in the population of the United States - certainly thirty million and maybe forty million people, including babies, grandfathers, and grownups now renamed Jones and Kelly. In a non-statistical, human-interest picture such as this intends to be the actual number of foreign-born immigrant American citizens, already close to fifteen million, is a mere nucleus for the vast, incomputable total who retain traces of their foreign language origin. All the Johns, Jakes, Tonys, Mikes, Joes, Olafs, and Evas are real people, named by their real names, and will perhaps cast more light on the picture than the various celebrities. It is all straight reporting, plus occasional obvious opinions of his own, and if he has reported objectively rather than honestly it has been to shed a little light on whether or not these groups are actually a menace, as some highly vocal patriots believe. When he intrudes a little into the field of political experts and propagandists it is only in relation to whether or not the recently foreign element in Americas population is a menace, or antagonistic, to Americas present basic form of government and social fabric Where he mentions his own sincere belief that the American is as good a basic form of government and social fabric as has yet been tried - or imagined by honest Utopians - he does it neither as a member of any privileged class nor as a professional political commentator, but simply as an average working American, neither rich nor poor, who likes his own country the best, and hopes it will survive as a free democracy. If his reporting seems consequently on the optimistic side it is because what he saw and heard led him sincerely to believe that the American Melting Pot - despite the fact that it bubbles, emits steam, and occasionally has to be skimmed of scum - is producing a good, sound, healthy conglomerate.