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.
#2160733 in Books Princeton University Press 2000-09-15Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 .82 x 6.39 x 9.53l; #File Name: 0691007470264 pages
Review
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Gppd bookBy R. KitchenIt is a very good book ;extremely well researched; This is one book that will keep on my shelves.I just wish that it had been available in Kindle format.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Worth 5 stars...By John Paul SassoneA truly wonderful book for Jewish and non-Jewish; New Yorker and non-New Yorker alike. This is not a tourist guide to the LES; so if you're looking for a travel book this isn't it.What it is goes deep into what it is to be Jewish in America; whether you or your family ever lived in NY. The book explains how the LES came to represent Jewishness in America; how people looked at it as a common factor in their lives. Even though more Jews settled in Brooklyn and Harlem than on the LES; that one area has come to represent everything Jewish in America.Reading this book will give you an idea of what people relocating from Russia; Eastern Europe; Poland; etc; faced upon arrival in this country. Beyond that though it shows why people still fell drawn to the LES generations later.A truly great book that needs to be read by everyone since we are all newcomers to America.19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. An exceptional; informative; highly recommended historyBy Midwest Book ReviewHasia Diner is the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. In Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place In America; she recounts the history of Manhattan's Lower East Side in terms of its Jewish community; largely populated by immigrants from Eastern Europe. During the years 1880-1930 it was never ethnically (or even religiously) homogenous. It was a place of tenements; poverty; sweatshops; packs of roaming children; a dark warren of pushcart-lined streets and social work pioneering. Professor Diner surveys its popular culture; and the impact of the Lower East Side as an icon symbol upon such diverse venues as children's stories; novels; movies; museum exhibits; television shows; summer-camp reenactments; walking tours; consumer catalogues -- even photos hung on deli walls. After World War II the Lower East Side was enshrined as the portal through which Jews passed from European oppression into the promise of America. After 1960; the Lower East Side gave secularized and suburban Jews a culturally transmitted story of their origins and heritage. Lower East Side Memories is an exceptional; informative; highly recommended history of a community; a heritage; and a cultural identity arising from one of the most distinctive and unique neighborhoods in American twentieth century history.
