Becoming Old Stock: The Paradox of German-American Identity

Russell Kazal

Published by Princeton University Press 2004

Becoming Old Stock

The Paradox of German-American Identity

Russell Kazal

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691223674

Overview
Contents

About this book

More Americans trace their ancestry to Germany than to any other country. Arguably, German Americans form America's largest ethnic group. Yet they have a remarkably low profile today, reflecting a dramatic, twentieth-century retreat from German-American identity. In this age of multiculturalism, why have German Americans gone into ethnic eclipse--and where have they ended up? Becoming Old Stock represents the first in-depth exploration of that question. The book describes how German Philadelphians reinvented themselves in the early twentieth century, especially after World War I brought a nationwide anti-German backlash.

Using quantitative methods, oral history, and a cultural analysis of written sources, the book explores how, by the 1920s, many middle-class and Lutheran residents had redefined themselves in "old-stock" terms--as "American" in opposition to southeastern European "new immigrants." It also examines working-class and Catholic Germans, who came to share a common identity with other European immigrants, but not with newly arrived black Southerners.

Becoming Old Stock sheds light on the way German Americans used race, American nationalism, and mass culture to fashion new identities in place of ethnic ones. It is also an important contribution to the growing literature on racial identity among European Americans. In tracing the fate of one of America's largest ethnic groups, Becoming Old Stock challenges historians to rethink the phenomenon of ethnic assimilation and to explore its complex relationship to American pluralism.

Author / Editor information

Russell A. Kazal is Assistant Professor of History at Arcadia University.

Reviews

"This is a scholarly work par excellence. Prodigiously researched, cogently argued and extremely well written, the book is a richly detailed case study of the shifts in German-American identity in Philadelphia during the early 20th century. A tour de force."—Marilyn Halter, Boston University

"The book has tremendous merits for its sweeping arguments backed up by detailed documentation. . . . [It] makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of early twentieth century German-America, and it enhances our understanding of the relationship between ethnicity, whiteness, and national identity in urban America."---Christiane Harzig, Central European History

"This is a richly satisfying book. One puts it down feeling that everything relevant to the subject has been carefully looked into, judiciously considered, and set forth in a calm, clear, and illuminating manner. . . . [The] book gives us much to think about and even more to admire."---Philip Gleason, American Historical Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE 1900
CHAPTER ONE German Philadelphia: A Social Portrait Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
CHAPTER TWO Two Neighborhoods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
PART TWO Confronting Assimilation, 1900–1914
CHAPTER THREE The Gendered Crisis of the Vereinswesen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
CHAPTER FOUR Destinations: The Ambiguous Lure of Mass Commercial and Consumer Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
CHAPTER FIVE Destinations: Fractured Whiteness, “American” Identity, and the “Old Stock” Opening Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
CHAPTER SIX Resisting Assimilation: Middle-Class and Working-Class Approaches Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
PART THREE Storm, 1914–1919
CHAPTER SEVEN European War and Ethnic Mobilization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
CHAPTER EIGHT Intervention, the Anti-German Panic, and the Fall of Public Germanness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
PART FOUR Reshaping Identities in the 1920s
CHAPTER NINE An Ethnicity Subdued Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
CHAPTER TEN Changing Neighborhoods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
CHAPTER ELEVEN Middle-Class Germans: American Identity and the “Stock” of “Our Forefathers” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
CHAPTER TWELVE Workers and Catholics: Toward the “White Ethnic” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
CONCLUSION Pluralism, Nationalism, Race, and the Fate of German America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
APPENDIX The Neighborhood Census Samples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371