lations of New York, Boston, Chicago, and other Northern industrial cities. Fully 20 percent of American adults age 20 to 24 had been born abroad. Then, World War I and restrictive legislation dramatically slowed the influx. Today, the wave of pre-1914 immigrants accounts for the record growth in the number of "old old" Americans (age 75 and over).
The disappearance of the pre-1914 immigrants will move the elderly much closer to the mainstream of American life, writes Newitt. From 1970...