ALFRED and AGNES: The Story of My Immigrant Parents by Frieda Fritz Stiehl
What a wonderful book!
The author has written a history of her family, especially her father
and mother, German immigrants to the United States in the last century. With a plethora
of photographs and an unflinching eye on her family’s “characters,” she has
written a chronicle for all German-Americans -- all immigrants. Her family
comes alive in the pages as each of their lives is detailed.
She makes these ordinary
people, their work, their homes, their villages and, ultimately, their
Americanization, come alive for the reader. This is an unforgettable archive of
the recent past.
The research is impeccably done. The photographs help orient
the reader and bring the narrative to life. Stretching back to the Thirty Years
War, coming forward to German Unification, World War I and the devastation on
the German psyche by reparations and the rise of Nazism, the Dust Bowl years in
the Midwest and finally a dairy farm in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, all
are presented in vivid relief.
Anyone who is interested in immigrants, rural life, family dynamics,
friendships, farming, pre-industrial life and “how things are made” will find much
of interest. Book groups, especially
those with an immigrant or farming interest, will be able to sustain a lengthy discussion.
5 of 5 stars
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