An Immigrant Neighborhood : Interethnic and Interracial Encounters in New York Before 1930

Examining race and ethnic relations through an intersectional lens, Shirley Yee's An Immigrant Neighborhood investigates the ways that race, class, and gender together shaped concepts of integration and assimilation as well as whiteness and citizenship in lower Manhattan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. In contrast to accounts of insulated neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves, Yee unearths the story of working class urban dwellers of various ethnic groups-Chinese, Jews, Italians, and Irish-routinely interacting in social and economic settings. Yee's numerous, fascinating anecdotes-such as one about an Irishman who served as the only funeral director for Chinese for many years-recount the lived experiences of these neighborhoods, detailing friendships, business relationships, and sexual relationships that vividly counter the prevailing idea that different ethnic groups did not mix except in ways marked by violence and hostility. In contrast to accounts of insulated neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves, Yee's study unearths the story of working-class urban dwellers of various ethnic groups-Chinese, Jews, Italians, and Irish-routinely interacting in social and economic settings. Recounting the lived experiences in these neighborhoods, Yee's numerous, fascinating anecdotes-such as the story of an Irishman who served for many years as the only funeral director for Chinese residents-detail friendships, business relationships, and sexual relationships that vividly counter the prevailing idea that ethnic groups mixed only in ways that were marked by violence and hostility. Book jacket Examining race and ethnic relations through an intersectional lens, Shirley J. Yee's An Immigrant Neighborhood investigates the ways that race, class, and gender together shaped concepts of integration and assimilation as well as concepts of whiteness and citizenship in lower Manhattan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Forming Households, Families, and Communities 2. Building Commercial Relations 3. Sustaining Life and Caring for the Dead 4. Mixing with the Sinners: The Anti-vice Movement 5. On (Un)Common Ground: Religious Politics in Settlements and Missions Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index "Households, families and community" "Building commercial relations" "Sustaining life and caring for the dead" Mixing with the sinners: the anti-vice movement "On (un)common ground: religious politics in settlements and missions.