Assimilation, American Style

Assimilation, American Style
Author: Peter D. Salins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 282
Release: 1997-01-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Salins argues that assimilation is part of a larger American social compact that has flourished throughout our history, and to abandon it now would destroy the foundations of our prosperity, our social cohesion, and, ultimately, American culture itself. He shows how successive immigrant populations have become Americanized, despite being considered "alien" in their time-notably, the Germans, Irish, Italians, and Jews-and how assimilation continues to work today among Hispanics and Asians. The book sheds light on the threats to assimilation from the left (multiculturalism) and the right (nativism), revealing the perilous consequences of each.

Acculturation and Its Discontents

Acculturation and Its Discontents
Author: David H. Myers
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802098517

Exploring the fascinating cross-cultural influences between Jews and Christians in Italy from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, Acculturation and Its Discontents assembles essays by leading historians, literary scholars, and musicologists to present a well-rounded history of Italian Jewry. The contributors offer rich portraits of the many vibrant forms of cultural and artistic expression that Italian Jews contributed to, but this volume also pays close attention to the ways in which Italian Jews - both freely and under pressure - creatively adapted to the social, cultural, and legal norms of the surrounding society. Tracing both the triumphs and tragedies of Jewish communities within Italy over a broad span of time, Acculturation and Its Discontents challenges conventional assumptions about assimilation and state intervention and, in the process, charts the complex process of cultural exchange that left such a distinctive imprint not only on Italian Jewry, but also on Italian society itself. This collection of rigorous and thought-provoking essays makes a major contribution to both the history of Italian culture and the cultural influence and significance of European Jews.

Assimilation and Its Discontents

Assimilation and Its Discontents
Author: Barry M. Rubin
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN:

And the issue of assimilation is always present - implicitly or explicitly, as subject or basis - in an outpouring of books, films, music, and plays by and about Jews.

Multiculturalism and Its Discontents

Multiculturalism and Its Discontents
Author: Kenan Malik
Publisher: Manifestos for the 21st Century
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Identity politics
ISBN: 9780857421142

Our contemporary celebration of difference, respect for pluralism, and avowal of identity politics have come to be regarded as the hallmarks of a progressive, modern democracy. Yet despite embracing many of its values, we have at the same time become wary of multiculturalism in recent years. In the wake of September 11, 2001 and the many terrorist attacks that have occurred since then, there has been much debate about the degree of diversity that Western nations can tolerate. In Multiculturalism and its Discontents, Kenan Malik looks closely at the role of multiculturalism within terrorism and societal discontent. He examines whether it is possible--or desirable--to try to build a cohesive society bound by common values and he delves into the increasing anxiety about the presence of the Other within our borders. Multiculturalism and its Discontents not only explores the relationship between multiculturalism and terrorism, but it analyzes the history of the idea of multiculturalism alongside its political roots and social consequences.

Assimilation in American Life

Assimilation in American Life
Author: Milton M. Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2010-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 019536547X

The first full-scale sociological survey of the assimilation of minorities in America, this classic work presents significant conclusions about the problems of prejudice and discrimination in America and offers positive suggestions for the achievement of a healthy balance among societal, subgroup, and individual needs.

The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning

The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning
Author: Nancy Brooks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1027
Release: 2012-01-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0195380622

This volume embodies a problem-driven and theoretically informed approach to bridging frontier research in urban economics and urban/regional planning. The authors focus on the interface between these two subdisciplines that have historically had an uneasy relationship. Although economists were among the early contributors to the literature on urban planning, many economists have been dismissive of a discipline whose leading scholars frequently favor regulations over market institutions, equity over efficiency, and normative prescriptions over positive analysis. Planners, meanwhile, even as they draw upon economic principles, often view the work of economists as abstract, not sensitive to institutional contexts, and communicated in a formal language spoken by few with decision making authority. Not surprisingly, papers in the leading economic journals rarely cite clearly pertinent papers in planning journals, and vice versa. Despite the historical divergence in perspectives and methods, urban economics and urban planning share an intense interest in many topic areas: the nature of cities, the prosperity of urban economies, the efficient provision of urban services, efficient systems of transportation, and the proper allocation of land between urban and environmental uses. In bridging this gap, the book highlights the best scholarship in planning and economics that address the most pressing urban problems of our day and stimulates further dialog between scholars in urban planning and urban economics.

White Metropolis

White Metropolis
Author: Michael Phillips
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0292774249

Winner, T. R. Fehrenbach Award, Texas Historical Commission, 2007 From the nineteenth century until today, the power brokers of Dallas have always portrayed their city as a progressive, pro-business, racially harmonious community that has avoided the racial, ethnic, and class strife that roiled other Southern cities. But does this image of Dallas match the historical reality? In this book, Michael Phillips delves deeply into Dallas's racial and religious past and uncovers a complicated history of resistance, collaboration, and assimilation between the city's African American, Mexican American, and Jewish communities and its white power elite. Exploring more than 150 years of Dallas history, Phillips reveals how white business leaders created both a white racial identity and a Southwestern regional identity that excluded African Americans from power and required Mexican Americans and Jews to adopt Anglo-Saxon norms to achieve what limited positions of power they held. He also demonstrates how the concept of whiteness kept these groups from allying with each other, and with working- and middle-class whites, to build a greater power base and end elite control of the city. Comparing the Dallas racial experience with that of Houston and Atlanta, Phillips identifies how Dallas fits into regional patterns of race relations and illuminates the unique forces that have kept its racial history hidden until the publication of this book.

Governing China’s Multiethnic Frontiers

Governing China’s Multiethnic Frontiers
Author: Morris Rossabi
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295983906

Leading scholars examine the Chinese government’s administration of its ethnic minority regions, particularly border areas where ethnicity is at times a volatile issue and where separatist movements are feared. Chapters focus on the Muslim Hui, multiethnic southwest China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Together these studies provide an overview of government relations with key minority populations, against which one can view evolving dialogues and disputes. Contributors are Gardner Bovington, David Bachman, Uradyn E. Bulag, Melvyn C. Goldstein, Mette Halskov Hansen, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Jonathan Lipman.

To Be an American

To Be an American
Author: Bill Ong Hing
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2000
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0814736092

The impetus behind California's Proposition 187 clearly reflects the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in this country. Many Americans regard today's new immigrants as not truly American, as somehow less committed to the ideals on which the country was founded. In clear, precise terms, Bill Ong Hing considers immigration in the context of the global economy, a sluggish national economy, and the hard facts about downsizing. Importantly, he also confronts the emphatic claims of immigrant supporters that immigrants do assimilate, take jobs that native workers don't want, and contribute more to the tax coffers than they take out of the system. A major contribution of Hing's book is its emphasis on such often-overlooked issues as the competition between immigrants and African Americans, inter-group tension, and ethnic separatism, issues constantly brushed aside both by immigrant rights groups and the anti-immigrant right. Drawing on Hing's work as a lawyer deeply involved in the day-to-day life of his immigrant clients, To Be An American is a unique blend of substantive analysis, policy, and personal experience.

The Finkler Question

The Finkler Question
Author: Howard Jacobson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2010-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1608196127

"He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one..." Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular and disappointed BBC worker, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czechoslovakian always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor's grand, central London apartment. It's a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you had less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends' losses. And it's that very evening, at exactly 11:30pm, as Treslove hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country as he walks home, that he is attacked. After this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of exclusion and belonging, justice and love, ageing, wisdom and humanity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best.