Overview

More Americans trace their ancestry to Germany than to any other country. Arguably, German Americans form America's largest ethnic group. Yet they have a remarkably low profile today, reflecting a dramatic, twentieth-century retreat from German-American identity. In this age of multiculturalism, why have German Americans gone into ethnic eclipse--and where have they ended up? Becoming Old Stock represents the first in-depth exploration of that question. The book describes how German Philadelphians reinvented themselves in the early twentieth century, especially after World War I brought a nationwide anti-German backlash. Using quantitative methods, oral history, and a cultural analysis of written sources, the book explores how, by the 1920s, many middle-class and Lutheran residents had redefined themselves in ""old-stock"" terms--as ""American"" in opposition to southeastern European ""new immigrants."" It also examines working-class and Catholic Germans, who came to share a common identity with other European immigrants, but not with newly arrived black Southerners.Becoming Old Stock sheds light on the way German Americans used race, American nationalism, and mass culture to fashion new identities in place of ethnic ones.It is also an important contribution to the growing literature on racial identity among European Americans. In tracing the fate of one of America's largest ethnic groups, Becoming Old Stock challenges historians to rethink the phenomenon of ethnic assimilation and to explore its complex relationship to American pluralism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Russell Kazal
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.482kg
ISBN:  

9780691050157

ISBN 10:   0691050155
Pages:   408
Publication Date:   26 July 2004
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

"List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Part One: 1900 Chapter One German Philadelphia: A Social Portrait 17 Chapter Two Two Neighborhoods 43 Part Two: Confronting Assimilation, 1900-1914 Chapter Three The Gendered Crisis of the Vereinswesen 79 Chapter Four Destinations: The Ambiguous Lure of Mass Commercial and Consumer Culture 95 Chapter Five Destinations: Fractured Whiteness, ""American"" Identity, and the ""Old Stock"" Opening 109 Chapter Six Resisting Assimilation: Middle-Class and Working-Class Approaches 130 Part Three: Storm, 1914-1919 Chapter Seven European War and Ethnic Mobilization 151 Chapter Eight Intervention, the Anti-German Panic, and the Fall of Public Germanness 171 Part Four: Reshaping Identities in the 1920s Chapter Nine An Ethnicity Subdued 197 Chapter Ten Changing Neighborhoods 213 Chapter Eleven Middle-Class Germans: American Identity and the ""Stock"" of ""Our Forefathers"" 232 Chapter Twelve Workers and Catholics: Toward the ""White Ethnic"" 246 Conclusion Pluralism, Nationalism, Race, and the Fate of German America 261 Appendix The Neighborhood Census Samples 283 Notes 291 Index 371"

Reviews

This is a richly satisfying book. One puts it down feeling that everything relevant to the subject has been carefully looked into, judiciously considered, and set forth in a calm, clear, and illuminating manner... [The] book gives us much to think about and even more to admire. -- Philip Gleason, American Historical Review The book has tremendous merits for its sweeping arguments backed up by detailed documentation... [It] makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of early twentieth century German-America, and it enhances our understanding of the relationship between ethnicity, whiteness, and national identity in urban America. -- Christiane Harzig, Central European History

This is a richly satisfying book. One puts it down feeling that everything relevant to the subject has been carefully looked into, judiciously considered, and set forth in a calm, clear, and illuminating manner... [The] book gives us much to think about and even more to admire. -- Philip Gleason American Historical Review The book has tremendous merits for its sweeping arguments backed up by detailed documentation... [It] makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of early twentieth century German-America, and it enhances our understanding of the relationship between ethnicity, whiteness, and national identity in urban America. -- Christiane Harzig Central European History

Author Information

Russell A. Kazal is Assistant Professor of History at Arcadia University.

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