Read more
Informationen zum Autor Walter D. Kamphoefner teaches in the field of immigration history and the U.S. Civil War. He spent three yearlong guest professorships at German universities, two on Fulbright lectureships, and served as President of the Society for German-American Studies, 2015-17. He has published widely in the field of immigration and ethnicity, with articles in four languages and three books out in both German and English versions. Klappentext This book offers a fresh look at the Germans?the largest and perhaps the most diverse foreign-language group in 19th century America. Drawing upon the latest findings from both sides of the Atlantic, emphasizing history from the bottom up and drawing heavily upon examples from immigrant letters, this work presents a number of surprising new insights. Particular attention is given to the German-American institutional network, which because of the size and diversity of the immigrant group was especially strong. Not just parochial schools, but public elementary schools in dozens of cities offered instruction in the mother tongue. Only after 1900 was there a slow transition to the English language in most German churches. Still, the anti-German hysteria of World War I brought not so much a sudden end to cultural preservation as an acceleration of a decline that had already begun beforehand. It is from this point on that the largest American ethnic group also became the least visible, but especially in rural enclaves, traces of the German culture and language persisted to the end of the twentieth century. Inhaltsverzeichnis I. Early Emigrants to Colonial and Revolutionary America Starting with the founding of Germantown, in 1683, examines German settlements in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and the German role in the Revolutionary War. It corrects the view that "sect Germans" such as Amish and Mennonites made up the bulk of colonial immigration, and also explodes and explains the myth that German nearly became the official language of the United States. It concludes by showing how the forces of assimilation eroded ethnicity until mass immigration resumed after 1830. II. The Push-Sources and Causes of 19th Century Emigration This chapter examines the push factors operating in the three regional cultures of Germany, the "dwarf agriculture" of the Southwest where equal inheritance prevailed; the bimodal structures of Northwest Germany, divided between a prosperous peasantry upheld by indivisible inheritance and a growing tenant farmer class; and the great estates of Eastern Germany where agricultural laborers were poorest and most oppressed. Investigating the occupational structure and selectivity of emigration, it contradicts the view that emigrants were "people who had something to lose, and were losing it," stressing instead the relative poverty of those leaving. Also exposes the German practice of providing free or subsidized passage to convicts and other undesirables such as poor relief recipients, and demonstrates that the mortality rates of passengers, even in the days of sail, were lower than often believed. III. 19th Century Immigration: Organized vs. Individual This chapter seeks to correct the overemphasis on emigrant guidebooks and organized emigration societies, emphasizing instead the role of immigrant letters and chain migration as the major influence on immigrant destinations. It does, however, examine the fate of several of the most important immigration societies, particularly the "Adelsverein" in Texas and some religiously motivated societies. It shows that economic factors were the main motivator, though economic disadvantages and political powerlessness were interrelated. It also examines the Forty-eighter political refugees and their contrasts and commonalities with other emigrants. IV. Where They Settled This chapter examines the German avoidance of the South and ...
