Abstract
In his Introduction, the editor of the volume looks at the history of immigration to the United States from the 1790s to the present. In the attitudes of American society towards immigrants, broader historical phenomena are reflected, eg inter-war isolationism, the post-WW2 cold-war tensions, and, from 1960s, the shift of values accompanying the struggle for the civil rights of minorities.
The Introduction also characterizes individual contributions of the volume that was made possible by the grant of the Czech Grant Agency No. 407/03/0442.