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| Format | Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Knobel, Dale T. |
| Title, Analytic | Hans and the Historian: Ethnic Stereotypes and American Popular Culture, 1820-1860 |
| Author, Monographic | Rippley, La Vern J.//Benjamin, Steven M. |
| Title, Monographic | Papers from the St. Olaf Symposium on German-Americana |
| Date of Publication | 1980 |
| Location in Work | 55-69 |
| Abstract | Ethnic stereotypes are nothing more than patterns of verbal description which create enduring images of ethnic minorities in the language of popular culture. Stereotypes reveal interethnic attitudes which reflect not only preconceptions and prejudices but also the character of ongoing group relationships. By examining a sufficiently large sample of popular dialogue, historians can try to locate those enduring features of group attitudes which were independent of atypical circumstances or the pressures of special interests. The author did such a study and summarizes the results, comparing descriptions about German and Irish immigrants. Popular ethnic images were composed of a very small number of verbal components endlessly repeated in different combinations. The author's objective in this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of content analysis of popular stereotypes in discerning mass attitudes and tracing them to authentic developments in ethnic relationships. Antebellum ethnic stereotypes demonstrate that members of the Anglo-American majority were able to distinguish the German community very clearly from other immigrant minorities and that their dispositions toward it were products of unique patterns of group interaction |
| Call Number | MKI P85-85 |
| MKI Terms | Ethnic identity/ Stereotypes/ Immigrants, German/ 19th century/ Minorities/ Attitudes/ Ethnic relations |