Topic 1: The Creation of American Identity
The United
States is a nation built from the work and aspirations of immigrants and their
descendants. The original thirteen colonies were not large populations of
Americans; they were English, Scottish, German, African, and others, and
identified as such. With the spark of the American Revolution and the adoption
of a declaration that established a nation separate from these cultures and the
power wielded by the British Empire, many of the people living in the American
colonies had reached a point in the relationship with their identities and
their histories where they considered themselves a part of the American
identity. I am interested in researching and analyzing the process and colonial
opinion on the gradual separation from Old World identity and the creation of
an identity and community that would be American. I want to research the
cultural mechanisms that prevented some ethnicities and communities from fully
meshing with the constructed identity, from African slaves and freedmen to
Irish and Catholic immigrants to Native American tribes, both in and outside of
colonial borders. Who were the groups who began to construct a new American identity? Whom did they choose to exclude, and why? To what extent did cultural, religious, and economic factors control these exclusions?
Sources:
- Butler, Jon. Becoming America
: the Revolution Before 1776. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2000.
- Kermes, Stephanie. Creating an American Identity
: New England, 1789-1825. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
- Rakove, Jack N. Revolutionaries : a New History
of the Invention of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
2010.
Source
Wishlist:
- Writings from colonial governors or
legislators about the changing character of colonists pre-revolution.
- Laws, journals, or court cases in
which the status of free black Americans as deserving of certain rights as
Americans or citizens was rejected as well as the rationalization behind
such action.
- Journals or treatises discussing the inclusion
or exclusion of certain groups based on ethnicity or other factors but not
race (e.g. the Irish or Catholics).
Topic 2: The Assimilation of Immigrants in America
The
metaphor of the United States as a “melting pot” of cultures and immigrant
groups has existed in the American cultural consciousness for over a century. It
has its flaws as a paradigm of the immigrant experience, and many immigrants to
the United States choose to or are forced to maintain aspects of or the near
entirety of their national, cultural, or ethnic identity. For this project, I
am interested in exploring the experiences of the large groups of immigrants
who did largely assimilate into the “standard” American identity as well as those who couldn't or chose not to. Groups like
Germans, Italians, the Polish, and the Irish were all discriminated against and
separated from the mainstream American culture but now lack the sense of
“otherness” that communities like Hispanic immigrants and other groups are
still forced to confront in modern-day America. What were the reasons for the
acceptance and assimilation of Germans, but not the Japanese? Are there some
Asian nationalities that have found more acceptance than others? To what extent
does the color of a group’s skin determine their ability to find tolerance? If
skin color is the only important factor, then why were white groups like
Catholics, Germans, and Italians initially discriminated against?
Sources:
- Yurdakul, Gökçe, and Y. Michal Bodemann. Citizenship
and Immigrant Incorporation : Comparative Perspectives On North America
and Western Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
- Øverland, Orm. Immigrant Minds, American
Identities : Making the United States Home, 1870-1930. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2000.
- Noel, Linda C. Debating American Identity :
Southwestern Statehood and Mexican Immigration.
- Zecker, Robert. Race and America's Immigrant
Press : How the Slovaks Were Taught to Think Like White People. .
Source
Wishlist:
- Letters from German immigrants on
their acceptance in and feelings about the United States, particularly
during the First and Second World Wars.
- Letters, novels, and writings of
Hispanic immigrants, either modern or historical.
- Accounts of Irish and Chinese workers
on the trans-continental railroad.
For your second topic, perhaps consider the correlation between time and the label of 'other' or 'outsider'. Another facet to consider the fact, as Tocqueville wrote, that the U.S. was founded (and for much of its history has existed) as an "Anglo-American federation": in other words, perhaps German and Italian immigrants had less culture shock than Japanese immigrants? On the flip side, consider that as technology developed it probably became easier for immigrants to stay in touch with their 'motherland' and culture. Was immigration in the nineteenth century really that different from the experience of immigration in the twentieth century, and from today? Has the difficulty of immigration to, and of settling in, the U.S. changed over time? This topic seems very relevant to the contemporary debate about immigration, which is to say, I like it!
ReplyDeleteI am also fascinated by your first topic. Perhaps consider the role of class (e.g. What immigrant groups made up the upper classes that dictated the construction of, and early rhetoric about, the new American nation)? How has the level of difficulty of assimilation been affected by the extent of welcome and/or injustice experienced by each group?
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteI am really intrigued by your first topic - it is certainly a question that I have been fascinated by as well. I think that in order to paint an accurate picture of the shift of American identity, you must first gain insight into the identity held by those who first settled the United States. How did separation from the British Empire affect these settlers psychologically and physically? I think that this may be a great starting point from which to narrow your focus. Perhaps by looking at the influence of a few different groups on shaping the “American identity.” Your second topic, while similar to the first, takes a different approach looking at a fixed “American identity” and examining what happens when other cultures come across this identity. Having a personal take on answering this question, I think that if you pursue this topic, it would benefit you to narrow it to a certain time period. Generationally, I think that acceptance of “the other” and vice versa has shifted over time, so it may be helpful to stick to one generation of immigrants.
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteYour first topic, I think, may be a bit unwieldy. While it is fascinating, the creation of American identity pre-Revolution seems like the premise of a full book rather than a (relatively) short research paper. To plan to talk about how so many divergent groups all throughout the colonies changed is to risk over-generalization. Perhaps it would be fruitful to narrow the scope of your research to a particular geographical area, or even to one city? That way, you would have the chance to properly analyze how different classes, races, and religions reacted to their changing heritage. It would be a great essay!
Your second topic seems even more ambitious--to attempt to treat how immigrants from all over the world have acted all throughout American history seems too broad to handle well. Perhaps confining this search to immigrants in a certain time period or to a certain area of the country would help you in developing a thesis or an argument and avoiding more generalizations, while still allowing you to explore immigrants from all over the world?
I look forward to reading either paper!
-Dan Ruprecht
Both your topics are fascinating to me since I recently read about assimilation in regards to schooling. I would suggest (unless you stick strictly in the colonial period) exploring the creation the Common School Movement and the very successful attempt to standardize American identity though the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI personally am more attracted to your second topic because of the implications of race in assimilation. I think you would find a lot of juicy sources (both personal accounts and government legislation) in regards to race, assimilation, and integration. That being said, your second topic will definitely need to find a more narrow focus (perhaps comparing just two or three immigrant groups?).
I think it would be really interesting to explore not just the dominant "American identity," but also the various other American identities that more marginal groups might have had. Is considering yourself American enough to make you part of the American identity, or do other people have to consider you American too?
ReplyDeleteI really like your second topic as well, but I agree with everyone else that you'll need to narrow it down somewhat. As others have mentioned, focusing on a specific time period would be helpful. Alternatively, it could be cool to follow the immigration patterns of a single ethnic group over the course of American history - you could tie in comparative information about what kind of reception other ethnic groups were getting at each point in history, but focus on the single group you chose. Particularly if you chose a group that was initially discriminated against but later found acceptance, that would really allow you to explore the process through which the change occurred.