David Laskin discusses his new book about 12 European immigrants who came to the U.S. in search of livelihoods, and ended up fighting with the American armed forces in World War I on Thursday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

Laskin contends in The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War that the men, and thousands like them, were transformed by their Army experience and returned from the war committed to America.

The 12 men in The Long Way Home represent nearly every major immigrant group of the last century: Italian, Jewish, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Irish, and Scandinavian. Though they all passed through Ellis Island, they settled all over the country – in cities large and small.

The event is co-sponsored by Rainy Day Books and the National World War I Museum. 

Copies of The Long Way Home will be available for sale, and Laskin will sign copies purchased during the event.