The Dutch American Identity

The Dutch American Identity PDF Author: Terence Schoone-Jongen
Publisher: Cambria Press
ISBN: 1604975652
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Each year, thousands of communities across the United States celebrate their ethnic heritages, values, and identities through the medium of festivals. Drawing together elements of ethnic pride, nostalgia, religious values, economic motives, cultural memory, and a spirit of celebration, these festivals are performances that promote and preserve a community's unique identity and heritage, while at the same time attempting to place the ethnic community within the larger American experience. Although these aims are pervasive across ethnic heritage celebrations, two festivals that appear similar may nevertheless serve radically different social and political aims. Accordingly, The Dutch American Identity examines five Dutch American festivals-three of which are among the oldest ethnic heritage festivals in the United States-in order to determine what such festivals mean and do for the staging communities. Although Dutch Americans were historically among the first ethnic groups to stage ethnic heritage festivals designed to attract outside audiences, and despite the fact that several Dutch American festivals have met with sustained success, little scholarship has focused on this ethnic group's festivals. Moreover, studies that have considered festivals staged by communities of European descent have typically focused on a single festival. The Dutch American Identity thus, on the one hand, seeks to call attention to the historical development and current sociocultural significance of Dutch American heritage festivals. On the other hand, this study aims to elucidate the ties that bind the five communities that stage these festivals together rather than studying one festival in isolation from the others. Creatively combining several methodologies, The Dutch American Identity describes and analyzes how the social, political, and ethical values of the five communities are expressed (performed, acted out, represented, costumed, and displayed) in their respective festivals. Rather than relying on familiar, even stereotypical, notions of "the Midwest," "rural America," "conservative America," etc., that often appear in contemporary political discourse, Schoone-Jongen shows just how complex and contradictory these festivals are in the ways they represent each community. At the same time, by placing these festivals within the context of American history, Schoone-Jongen also demonstrates how and why each festival is a microcosm of particular cultural, social, and political developments in modern America. The Dutch American Identity is an important book for sociology, performance studies, folklore, immigration history, anthropology, and cultural history collections.

The Dutch American Identity

The Dutch American Identity PDF Author: Terence Schoone-Jongen
Publisher: Cambria Press
ISBN: 1604975652
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book

Book Description
Each year, thousands of communities across the United States celebrate their ethnic heritages, values, and identities through the medium of festivals. Drawing together elements of ethnic pride, nostalgia, religious values, economic motives, cultural memory, and a spirit of celebration, these festivals are performances that promote and preserve a community's unique identity and heritage, while at the same time attempting to place the ethnic community within the larger American experience. Although these aims are pervasive across ethnic heritage celebrations, two festivals that appear similar may nevertheless serve radically different social and political aims. Accordingly, The Dutch American Identity examines five Dutch American festivals-three of which are among the oldest ethnic heritage festivals in the United States-in order to determine what such festivals mean and do for the staging communities. Although Dutch Americans were historically among the first ethnic groups to stage ethnic heritage festivals designed to attract outside audiences, and despite the fact that several Dutch American festivals have met with sustained success, little scholarship has focused on this ethnic group's festivals. Moreover, studies that have considered festivals staged by communities of European descent have typically focused on a single festival. The Dutch American Identity thus, on the one hand, seeks to call attention to the historical development and current sociocultural significance of Dutch American heritage festivals. On the other hand, this study aims to elucidate the ties that bind the five communities that stage these festivals together rather than studying one festival in isolation from the others. Creatively combining several methodologies, The Dutch American Identity describes and analyzes how the social, political, and ethical values of the five communities are expressed (performed, acted out, represented, costumed, and displayed) in their respective festivals. Rather than relying on familiar, even stereotypical, notions of "the Midwest," "rural America," "conservative America," etc., that often appear in contemporary political discourse, Schoone-Jongen shows just how complex and contradictory these festivals are in the ways they represent each community. At the same time, by placing these festivals within the context of American history, Schoone-Jongen also demonstrates how and why each festival is a microcosm of particular cultural, social, and political developments in modern America. The Dutch American Identity is an important book for sociology, performance studies, folklore, immigration history, anthropology, and cultural history collections.

How Dutch Americans Stayed Dutch

How Dutch Americans Stayed Dutch PDF Author: Michael J. Douma
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789089646453
Category : Calvinists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Dutch-American ethnic group demonstrates the persistence of Dutchness, which, however, has come to mean many different things in an American context. This study demonstrates that Dutch identities, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth-century immigrants, have survived precisely because of this flexibility: the evolution of tradition, not its rigid preservation, is the unifying principle of social cohesion. As Douma contends, to understand ethnic groups we need to see them as historically developing, changeable categories.

Growing Up Dutch-American

Growing Up Dutch-American PDF Author: Peter Ester
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description


Innocence Abroad

Innocence Abroad PDF Author: Benjamin Schmidt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521804080
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
Innocence Abroad explores the encounter between the Netherlands and the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Post-Colonial Immigrants and Identity Formations in the Netherlands

Post-Colonial Immigrants and Identity Formations in the Netherlands PDF Author: Ulbe Bosma
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089644547
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
In this book Ulbe Bosma explores the experience of immigrants in the Netherlands over sixty years and three generations. Looking at migrants from all countries, Bosma teases out how their ethnic identities are informed by Dutch culture, and how these immigrant identities evolve over time.“Fascinating, comprehensive, and historically grounded, this essential volume reveals how the colonial past continues to shape multicultural Dutch society. . . . It is an important counterpart to work on France, Britain, and Portugal.”—Andrea Smith, Lafayette College

Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity

Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity PDF Author: Nancy Foner
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610448537
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Fifty years of large-scale immigration has brought significant ethnic, racial, and religious diversity to North America and Western Europe, but has also prompted hostile backlashes. In Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity, a distinguished multidisciplinary group of scholars examine whether and how immigrants and their offspring have been included in the prevailing national identity in the societies where they now live and to what extent they remain perpetual foreigners in the eyes of the long-established native-born. What specific social forces in each country account for the barriers immigrants and their children face, and how do anxieties about immigrant integration and national identity differ on the two sides of the Atlantic? Western European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have witnessed a significant increase in Muslim immigrants, which has given rise to nativist groups that question their belonging. Contributors Thomas Faist and Christian Ulbricht discuss how German politicians have implicitly compared the purported “backward” values of Muslim immigrants with the German idea of Leitkultur, or a society that values civil liberties and human rights, reinforcing the symbolic exclusion of Muslim immigrants. Similarly, Marieke Slootman and Jan Willem Duyvendak find that in the Netherlands, the conception of citizenship has shifted to focus less on political rights and duties and more on cultural norms and values. In this context, Turkish and Moroccan Muslim immigrants face increasing pressure to adopt “Dutch” culture, yet are simultaneously portrayed as having regressive views on gender and sexuality that make them unable to assimilate. Religion is less of a barrier to immigrants’ inclusion in the United States, where instead undocumented status drives much of the political and social marginalization of immigrants. As Mary C. Waters and Philip Kasinitz note, undocumented immigrants in the United States. are ineligible for the services and freedoms that citizens take for granted and often live in fear of detention and deportation. Yet, as Irene Bloemraad points out, Americans’ conception of national identity expanded to be more inclusive of immigrants and their children with political mobilization and changes in law, institutions, and culture in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. Canadians’ views also dramatically expanded in recent decades, with multiculturalism now an important part of their national identity, in contrast to Europeans’ fear that diversity undermines national solidarity. With immigration to North America and Western Europe a continuing reality, each region will have to confront anti-immigrant sentiments that create barriers for and threaten the inclusion of newcomers. Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity investigates the multifaceted connections among immigration, belonging, and citizenship, and provides new ways of thinking about national identity.

The Forerunners

The Forerunners PDF Author: Robert P. Swierenga
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 081434416X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Between 1800 and 1880 approximately 6500 Dutch Jews immigrated to the United States to join the hundreds who had come during the colonial era. Although they numbered less than one-tenth of all Dutch immigrants and were a mere fraction of all Jews in America, the Dutch Jews helped build American Jewry and did so with a nationalistic flair. Like the other Dutch immigrant group, the Jews demonstrated the salience of national identity and the strong forces of ethnic, religious, and cultural institutions. They immigrated in family migration chains, brought special job skills and religious traditions, and founded at least three ethnic synagogues led by Dutch rabbis. The Forerunners offers the first detailed history of the immigration of Dutch Jews to the United States and to the whole American diaspora. Robert Swierenga describes the life of Jews in Holland during the Napoleonic era and examines the factors that caused them to emigrate, first to the major eastern seaboard cities of the United States, then to the frontier cities of the Midwest, and finally to San Francisco. He provides a detailed look at life among the Dutch Jews in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans. This is a significant volume for readers interested in Jewish history, religious history, and comparative studies of religious declension. Immigrant and social historians likewise will be interested in this look at a religious minority group that was forced to change in the American environment.

New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty

New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty PDF Author: Evan Haefeli
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812208951
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The settlers of New Netherland were obligated to uphold religious toleration as a legal right by the Dutch Republic's founding document, the 1579 Union of Utrecht, which stated that "everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion." For early American historians this statement, unique in the world at its time, lies at the root of American pluralism. New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty offers a new reading of the way tolerance operated in colonial America. Using sources in several languages and looking at laws and ideas as well as their enforcement and resistance, Evan Haefeli shows that, although tolerance as a general principle was respected in the colony, there was a pronounced struggle against it in practice. Crucial to the fate of New Netherland were the changing religious and political dynamics within the English empire. In the end, Haefeli argues, the most crucial factor in laying the groundwork for religious tolerance in colonial America was less what the Dutch did than their loss of the region to the English at a moment when the English were unusually open to religious tolerance. This legacy, often overlooked, turns out to be critical to the history of American religious diversity. By setting Dutch America within its broader imperial context, New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty offers a comprehensive and nuanced history of a conflict integral to the histories of the Dutch republic, early America, and religious tolerance.

Dutch Children of African American Liberators

Dutch Children of African American Liberators PDF Author: Mieke Kirkels
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476676933
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
In the Netherlands, a small group of biracial citizens has entered its eighth decade of lives that have been often puzzling and difficult, but which offer a unique insight into the history of race relations in America. Though their African American fathers had brought liberation from Nazi tyranny at the end of World War II, they were in a segregated American military derived from a racially divided American society. Decades later, some of their children could finally know of a father's identity and the life he had led after the war. Just one would be able to find an embrace in his arms, and just one would arrive at her father's American grave after 73 years. But they could now understand their own Dutch lives in the context of their fathers' lives in America.

Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations

Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations PDF Author: Hans Krabbendam
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9781438430133
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1200

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Book Description
A comprehensive history of bilateral relations between the Netherlands and the United States.