Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • The Great Departure

  • Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World
  • By: Tara Zahra
  • Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
  • Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Great Departure

By: Tara Zahra
Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Between 1846 and 1940, more than 50 million Europeans moved to the Americas, irrevocably changing both their new lands and the ones they left behind. Their immigration fostered an idea of the "land of the free", yet more than a third returned home again. In a groundbreaking study, Tara Zahra brilliantly explores the deeper story of this unprecedented movement of people.

As villages emptied, some blamed traffickers in human labor, targeting Jewish emigration agents. Others saw opportunity: to seed colonies of migrants like the Polish community in Argentina or to gain economic advantage from an inflow of foreign currency or to reshape their populations by encouraging the emigration of minorities. These precedents would shape the Holocaust, the closing of the Iron Curtain, and tragedies of ethnic cleansing while also forming notions of social solidarity, human rights, and freedom - whether it be the freedom to move or the freedom to stay home.

©2016 Tara Zahra. Recorded by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Undocumented cover art
Against the World cover art
Our America cover art
War and Genocide cover art
A History of America in Ten Strikes cover art
Invisible Countries cover art
State of Emergency cover art
Huddled Masses cover art
Language of War, Language of Peace cover art
A Call to Action cover art
Women’s War cover art
The Russian Revolution cover art
At America's Gates cover art
The Color of Success cover art
Congo Stories cover art
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History cover art

Critic reviews

"In this riveting book, Tara Zahra takes the story of immigration that Americans know so well and weaves it into a larger story of emigration that we have long neglected. Full of hope and promise of desperation and tragedy, it is perhaps the most important story of the 20th century. With all the drama of a novel and all the nuance of history writing at its best The Great Departure is a must-read." (Alison Johnson, Harvard University)
"With a combination of deft historical analysis sparkling prose and careful attention to individual stories, both poignant and instructive, Tara Zahra systematically deconstructs the myths surrounding emigration escape and deportation from Eastern Europe since the late 19th century. The Great Departure is brimming with important and suggestive lessons from the past for thinking about the worldwide dynamics of emigrants and refugees in our own day." (Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University)
"Meticulously researched, The Great Departure shows mass emigration from all sides including individual stories of poverty and maltreatment - but also positive changes emigration brought to women.... This book is equally relevant for Americans showing why and how many of their ancestors left their countries and for Europeans confronted with an unprecedented wave of immigrants today." (Slavenka Drakulic, author of A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism)

What listeners say about The Great Departure

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The grip of the writer on 100 years of history of emigration/immigration . Very informative

The special angle to look at the history of emigration. I learned a lot about the 19th and 20 century social history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!