"THEIR LONGING TO GO TO AMERICA IS SO VIOLENT AND POIGNANT AND ALL-PERVASIVE THAT THEY WOULD WILLINGLY PERMIT THEMSELVES TO BE KICKED ALL THE WAY FROM WARSAW TO PARIS OR FROM BELGRADE TO DANZIG": FIRST EDITION OF ROBERTS' WHY EUROPE LEAVES HOME, 1922

ROBERTS, Kenneth L. Why Europe Leaves Home. (Indianapolis): Bobbs-Merrill, (1922). Octavo, original red cloth, uncut. $150.

First edition of this 1920s anti-immigration work examining the conditions in Central Europe that led to a mass migration to America.

"A vicious polemic" (Leuchtenburg, 2929). "Why Europe Leaves Home, by Kenneth L. Roberts, the well-known newspaper correspondent, is a popular account explaining the recent migration of the peoples of Europe, especially why so many immigrants from Central and Southeastern Europe have been moving to America, what this means to the United States, why and how the Russians of the old régime fled to Paris, Warsaw and Constantinople and their struggle for existence, and the return of Constantine to Greece" (American Political Science Review). "Most writers on the immigration problem have been content to begin their research with the arrival of the immigrant at Ellis Island. Mr. Roberts coming to the subject from a different angle, has sought in Central Europe the reasons that actuate so many of the inhabitants of that continent to come to America. His study is not a reassuring one. He leaves the reader with the feeling that if our government is to exercise any real control over immigration, Congress must enact far more radical measures than have thus far been proposed" (Review of Reviews). Without original dust jacket.

Interior generally fine, slight toning to spine and top edge of rear board, stray white mark to rear board. A near-fine copy.