American Evangelical Protestantism and European Immigrants, 1800-1924

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)This book is, for the most part, a rendition of thought and opinion among Evangelical Protestant leaders and activists on the subject of non-Protestant immigrants to America during the long nineteenth century. The author has combed a variety of sources to illumine the thinking and advocating by clergy and other leaders of the Evangelical Movement. The point of what they wrote about and advocated, indeed lamented, was the influx of non-Protestant immigrants after about 1840. What those writers advocated was the stopping, or at least the slowing, of immigrants from places from which the transit of culture would, in their view, corrupt American society and its values. A very clear picture emerges from the sources that the author abundantly quotes that for America to be America it had to be Protestant. But, if it could not be truly Protestant in a churchly sense then the non-Protestant immigrants had to be Americanized (read Protestantized) by the public schools and by legislation that would regulate Sabbath observance and the use of alcohol.That is the key to understanding William Phalen's intent in this book. Following McLoughlin and Handy the author says that because Evangelicals were massively influential in creating and minding American culture, what they thought and did is of prime importance. But, as the author stresses, the actions of Evangelical Protestants were not solely or merely "religious" in the conventional sense of that word. Rather, the Protestants believed it was their calling not only to convert the lost--although surely that--but to establish and maintain a righteous nation, which, depending on varied definitions of the millennium, could be a harbinger of no less than the kingdom of God.The new immigrants after about 1840 found this set of values confusing, even oppressive. First it was the Irish, and then Germans, who came in large numbers. A generation later they were followed by an equally massive number of Italians, along with a sizeable contingent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as other parts of southern and eastern Europe. The social conflict turned on several issues. The first to be encountered was alcohol. For the mostly Catholic immigrants, consuming alcohol was a natural part of everyday life. Soon, in Paul Johnson's lovely phrase [though curiously, his classic work on Rochester is not used here] drink became "an angry badge" of distinction between mainstream and immigrant parallel societies. Then there was Sabbath observance. This was important to Protestants for obvious religious reasons but also for reasons of civic responsibility. For many of the immigrants, this was puzzling and annoying. For them, to have a picnic in the park on a Sunday afternoon, when one could play games with the children, and have a glass of beer or wine, seemed like a good thing to do after Mass. But most importantly the issue that divided the American Evangelicals and the immigrants was the public school. The author, wisely in my view, spends a lot of time on this issue.The school was, according to the Protestant self-appointed leaders of American culture, the main battle ground for the hearts and minds of future generations. …