The North American continent has long been hospitable to immigrants--to the first Americans, to Hispanics, to French, to Russians, to English; to Africans, Irish, Jews, Scandinavians, Chinese, Germans; to the homeless, to the hungry, to the rebellious, to the adventurous of the world. The rolling North American land has been broad enough to nourish us all.

Still, none of our settlers came here empty-handed. Each people who undertook the frightening journey to this new land brought with them both mother-wit and know-how as well as their own special part of the vast, centuries-old encyclopedia of particular human solutions to the inescapable ...