Michelle Stein–

Although this month’s Global and International Studies theme suggests a look at places far afield from home, in the US, where people come every day in search of a new life, international studies can be found even in the interactions of neighbors or a walk through a town or city.

New York City has long been a hub for immigrants.  In another time, Ellis Island was the entry point to the United States for twenty million newcomers.  Many of them, as many current immigrants, settled throughout New York City to find work, homes, and a new life.  As well as being the largest borough in New York City, Queens has emerged as its center for immigrant life, with foreign born individuals making up forty-four percent of Queens residents. Queens even played host to two World’s Fairs, in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965.  And in 1992 Queens County was declared the most diverse in the United States, though it has recently been surpassed by Los Angeles County.

Claudia Gryvatz Copquin’s The Neighborhoods of Queens is an in-depth look at Queens, covering every neighborhood throughout the borough.  The book was written with the input of residents throughout Queens, as well as the archives and data of hundreds of organizations.  Looking to the past as well as to the present, each neighborhood’s personality and culture is fully fleshed out.  As Encyclopedia of New York editor Kenneth T. Jackson wrote in the introduction, “[t]his is not a big book.  But it does have a big objective—to remind both residents and visitors that Queens is in fact one of the most exciting, most diverse, most American, and most promising places on earth.”

Michelle Stein is a former Yale Press intern and recent Vassar College graduate.  She lives on the Upper West Side in New York.