Becoming old stock
Subtitle: the paradox of German-American identity
By: Russell A. Kazal.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
Subjects: German Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Ethnic identity; German Americans -- Cultural assimilation -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia; Whites -- Race identity -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia; German Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Immigrants -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Social classes -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- History -- 20th century; Ethnicity -- United States -- Case studies; Pluralism (Social sciences) -- United States -- Case studies; Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Race relations; Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Genres: Case studies.
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-370) and index.