Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity
Title | Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity PDF eBook |
Author | Shannon Latkin Anderson |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 356 |
Release | 2015-11-19 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1317328752 |
Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.
The Other Side of Assimilation
Title | The Other Side of Assimilation PDF eBook |
Author | Tomas Jimenez |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 294 |
Release | 2017-07-18 |
Genre | Family & Relationships |
ISBN | 0520295706 |
The (not-so-strange) strangers in their midst -- Salsa and ketchup : cultural exposure and adoption -- Spotlight on white : fade to black -- Living with difference and similarity -- Living locally, thinking nationally
Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Title | Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives PDF eBook |
Author | MariaCaterina La Barbera |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 268 |
Release | 2014-11-24 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 3319101277 |
This book addresses the impact of migration on the formation and transformation of identity and its continuous negotiations. Its ground is the understanding of identity as a complex social phenomenon resulting from constant negotiations between personal conditions, social relationships, and institutional frameworks. Migrations, understood as dynamic processes that do not end when landing in the host country, offer the best conditions to analyze the construction and transformation of social identities in the postcolonial and globalized societies. Searching for novel epistemologies and methodologies, the research questions here addressed are how identity is negotiated in migration processes, and how these negotiations work in contemporary multiethnic Europe. This edited volume brings to the field a novel convergence of theoretical and empirical approaches by gathering together scholars from different countries of Europe and the Mediterranean area, from different disciplines and backgrounds, challenging the traditional discipline division.
The Best We Could Do
Title | The Best We Could Do PDF eBook |
Author | Thi Bui |
Publisher | Abrams |
Pages | 320 |
Release | 2017-03-07 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 1613129300 |
National bestseller 2017 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Finalist ABA Indies Introduce Winter / Spring 2017 Selection Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Spring 2017 Selection ALA 2018 Notable Books Selection An intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam, from debut author Thi Bui. This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent—the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. In what Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “a book to break your heart and heal it,” The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Bui’s journey of understanding, and provides inspiration to all of those who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.
Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity
Title | Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity PDF eBook |
Author | Shannon Latkin Anderson |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 254 |
Release | 2015-11-19 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1317328760 |
Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.
Cultural Identity, Immigrant Assimilation and Socioeconomic Inequalities
Title | Cultural Identity, Immigrant Assimilation and Socioeconomic Inequalities PDF eBook |
Author | Gabin Langevin |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Immigrants' and their descendants' assimilations are old issues in the economic literature. However, they have mainly been investigated in terms of immigration economic efficiency and discriminations. At the same time, cultural assimilation is a recurrent issue in the public debate and particularly through the concepts of national and cultural identity. The identity theory came out in economics more than a decade ago. It allowed improving the understanding of individuals' decisions when they define themselves by their belonging to one or more groups to which behaving norms are attached. Thanks to this theory, we explore to what extent cultural identity, seen as the expression of immigrants' cultural assimilation, allows improving the understanding of socioeconomic inequalities. We first highlight the importance of the family context and the educational attainment for the professional outcomes of first and second generations of immigrants. Then, we analyze the formation of the cultural identity. If ethnic identity diminishes with time since arrival in the host country, it also depends on the way it is measured. We exhibit a negative influence of ethnic identity on employment and voting participation but neutral on the wage level. Finally, thanks to a laboratory controlled experiment, we verify in a more general framework the significant role of group identity on individual behaviors.
The Benedict Option
Title | The Benedict Option PDF eBook |
Author | Rod Dreher |
Publisher | Penguin |
Pages | 274 |
Release | 2017-03-14 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0735213313 |
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade." —David Brooks In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo–Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state’s assault, but it will not stop the West’s slide into decadence and dissolution. Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actually the way back—all the way to St. Benedict of Nursia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization. Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture. The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Christians—Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox—who can read the signs of the times. Neither false optimism nor fatalistic despair will do. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. These are the days for building strong arks for the long journey across a sea of night.