Originally published: New York : Dutton, �1980.

Includes index.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... During the late 1800s and early 1900s millions of European immigrants took these words to heart as they arrived at Ellis Island, hoping of building a better life for their children and for future generations. This was, after all, the foundation of the American dream, and it was the children who helped make it come true. These immigrant kids worked at all sorts of jobs. They sold newspapers, delivered goods, hauled firewood and labored in sweatshops. Yet, they were still children. As often as they could, they took to their playground, the city streets. There they tagged after vendors, played baseball, fought rival gangs and gained a taste for the wonderful freedom that their parents had come to America to find.

Text and contemporary photographs chronicle the life of immigrant children at home, school, work, and play during the late 1800's and early 1900's.