Foreigners in Their Own Land
Pennsylvania Germans in the Early Republic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11675917 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Longenecker (corresponding author), Steven M Nolt |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 277-277 |
| Publication date | 2003-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the Early Republic (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0275-1275 • E-ISSN: 1553-0620 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3125044 |
| OpenAlex | W2028702108 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
Foreigners in Their Own Land: Germans in the Early Republic. By Steven M. Nolt. (University Park: State University Press, 2002. Pp. x, 238. Illustrations, maps. Cloth, $29.95.)Steven Nolt's Foreigners in Their Own Land studies German Lutherans and Reformed in early nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. Although folklorists and denominational historians have plowed this field frequently, Nolt is the first modern scholar to cultivate this topic and, therefore, his book is first-generation historiography.Nolt argues that Germans in the early republic thoroughly assimilated, yet they preserved and even sharpened ethnicity by relying on the American concepts they had absorbed. In fact, Nolt believes that this process of minorities becoming self-consciously ethnic-what he calls ethnicization-as-Americanization (3)-often comes hand-in-glove with Americanization. Minorities simultaneously assimilate and remain separate. Nolt suggests that Germans were the first, but hardly the last, to undergo this process, and the book, therefore, has importance beyond German studies.The model for Nolt apparently is A. G. Roeber' s Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (1998), which explores the application of Old World concepts, especially liberty and property, to new surroundings in colonial America. Nolt follows a similar strategy for the early nineteenth century. He maintains that German notions of a phrase he uses repeatedly, descended from European peasant republicanism, described as freedom from meddlesome, distant authority but deference to traditional local hierarchy (31). Peasant republicanism influenced the German understanding of American liberty, which Germans then used to fend off challenges to ethnicity.Nolt's strength is his ability to think big and ask creative questions. Who was the largest, white, non-British minority in the new nation? (Pennsylvania Germans.) Why did German denominations that embodied the camp meeting movement remain small while similar English-speaking fellowships grew spectacularly? (Because Lutherans and Reformed were already born-again Pietists with periodic revivals, because catechesis discouraged sudden conversion, and because peasant republican sensibilities [61] inhibited outside influence.) Why did most Germans reject the antebellum reform movement? (Because reformers' vision of a uniformly organized society conflicted with the Pennsylvania German version of the American dream [107] based on local control.) How could Germans retain a strong German subculture yet consider themselves thoroughly American? How could they be in their own land? (Because Americanization enhanced ethnicization.)Nolt is especially convincing in his argument that Germans made America their own land, and he identifies numerous ways in which Lutherans and Reformed resembled other Protestants. Although Lutherans and Reformed preserved denominational hierarchy imported from Europe, in practice their Congregationalism and localism paralleled trends among other American Protestants. They defended their rights with the same rhetoric used by other Americans. They were contentious, suffered schism, and became pluralistic. Although John Higham's strangers in the land (Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 [2002]) were the victims of nativism, Nolt's foreigners in their own land inflicted nativism on others, just like American Protestants of all stripes
Archaeology · Economic history · Geography · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · History · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
| Citations per year | 0.45 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2020 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |