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| Format | Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Gjerde, Jon |
| Title, Analytic | Prescriptions and Perceptions of Labor and Family among Ethnic Groups in the Nineteenth-Century American Middle West |
| Author, Monographic | Helbich, Wolfgang//Kamphoefner, Walter D. |
| Title, Monographic | German-American Immigration and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective |
| Place of Publication | Madison, WI |
| Publisher | Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Date of Publication | 2004 |
| Location in Work | 117-137 |
| Abstract | Focusing on the American Midwest, "this article considers the conversation between ethnic groups, regarding their patterns of labor and life and the meaning they drew from it. I argue that the conversation reveals much about underlying conceptualizations of the family, its function, and its structure. It illustrates how American-born individuals used the trope of the European family to depict what [Michel] Chevalier called the 'advance' of individuality and distributions of power in a society that was part of a 'series of that succession of progressive movements which have characterized our civilization.' By utilizing the variations in labor roles, proponents of this ideology could deprecate 'lesser' ethnic groups that lagged behind in the march of civilization. In contrast, Europeans used the labor patterns of Americans to warn against the dangers of life in the United States, to show the need for remaining true to invented patterns of labor among countrypeople, and ultimately to defend their group against diffusion from the outside." |
| Notes | Paper originally presented at a conference at Texas A&M University, Apr. 1997. |
| Call Number | E 184 .G3 G295 2004 |
| MKI Terms | Emigration and immigration (Germany-US)/ Ethnic groups -- German-speaking/ Ethnic identity/ Social conditions/ Labor and laboring classes/ Farm life/ Middle West/ Farm life/ Ethnic relations/ Stereotypes / Rural life & conditions |