Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter
Keywords
Book Review, Swiss immigrants
Abstract
In the course of the nineteenth century several hundred thousand Swiss immigrated to the United States. We know relatively little about why they left Switzerland, where they came from, what they experienced in the New World, and how many returned. General works dealing with the subject in any depth do not exist. One possible explanation for this gap in historical knowledge may be due to the fact that emigration from Switzerland has always been a highly individualized process. The number of attempted group colonizations is very small, and successful ventures of this kind were even scarcer. Yet it is very difficult, if not impossible, to trace thousands and thousands of individuals and to try to reconstruct the story of their experiences. Materials for such a history, letters, diaries, reports, may be stored or hidden in private homes or even libraries, but except for a few isolated cases, they are not known and are inaccessible to the researcher.
Recommended Citation
Meier, Heinz K.
(1965)
"Two 19th Century Swiss Immigrants Speak Out: Book Review,"
Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_newsletter/vol1/iss1/4