20 - American in the Making, the Life Story of an Immigrant by Marcus Eli Ravage

The sweat-shop was my liberty cradle... My first university, says Marcus Eli Ravage (1884-1965), a Romanian immigrant who changed the course of his life through education. By night, he attended lectures and theatre in New York; by day, he diligently sewed sleeves into shirts in a ghetto shop. Ravages 1917 autobiography narrates his journey from being an alien to becoming an American. At 16, he emigrated from Romania and worked for several years to save enough money to attend the University of Missouri, a culture shock at first. However, he eventually embraced the bigger and freer world beyond the immigrant ghetto. His university experience transformed him from being a man without a country into an American. This is a testament to the transformative power of education. - Summary by Sue Anderson