Emigration to the United States from Greece was chiefly a movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During these decades Greece waged a crusade for the union of Crete, Macedonia, and the Aegean Islands, yet despite the local nationalism, thousands of enterprising peasants despaired of life on the land and made their way to seaports from which they sailed for the United States. The straightforward and unadorned story of Ioannis Lougaris typifies the peasant exodus and the Greek experience in the New World.

Mr. Lougaris was born in 1887 in a rural community in Greece. An immigrant to the United States in 1907, he, like millions of others before him, discovered in America a completely different life-style than that to which he was accustomed. He worked at a number of jobs in New York, Chicago, across the continent and on the Pacific coast; served in the United States Army during the First World War; and arrived finally in Nevada in 1920. Through diligence and hard work, Lougaris studied for and passed the bar examination in Nevada. He then became an attorney, with a thriving practice in Reno. Active in civic affairs, he was important in obtaining legislation for the Veterans Administration Hospital at Reno.

This reminiscence by Ioannis A. Lougaris covers his life as a new immigrant in the United States; activities in the San Francisco Bay area; World War I experiences; business and civic affairs at Carson City and Reno; and a philosophical conclusion.