E-Book Overview
What does it mean to be from somewhere? If most people in the United States are "from some place else" what is an American homeland? In answering these questions, the contributors to Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America offer a geographical vision of territory and the formation of discrete communities in the U.S. today. Homelands discusses groups such as the Yankees in New England, Old Order Amish in Ohio, African Americans in the plantation South, Navajos in the Southwest, Russians in California, and several other peoples and places.
Homelands explores the connection of people and place by showing how aspects of several different North American groups found their niche and created a homeland. A collection of fifteen essays, Homelands is an innovative look at geographical concepts in community settings. It is also an exploration of the academic work taking place about homelands and their people, of how factors such as culture, settlement, and cartographic concepts come together in American sociology. There is much not only to study but also to celebrate about American homelands. As the editors state, "Underlying today's pluralistic society are homelands—large and small, strong and weak—that endure in some way. The mosaic of homelands to which people bonded in greater or lesser degrees, affirms in a holistic way America's diversity, its pluralistic society."
The authors depict the cultural effects of immigrant settlement. The conviction that people need to participate in the life of the homeland to achieve their own self realization, within the traditions and comforts of that community. Homelands gives us a new map of the United States, a map drawn with people's lives and the land that is their home.
E-Book Content
homelands
.................................................... creating the north american landscape Gregory Conniff, Edward K. Muller, David Schuyler . Consulting Editors George F. Thompson . Series Founder and Director
Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Harrisonburg, Virginia
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H O M E LA N D S A Geography of Culture and Place across America Edited by Richard L. Nostrand and Lawrence E. Estaville The Johns Hopkins University Press . Baltimore and London
2001 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2001 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Homelands : a geography of culture and place across America / edited by Richard L. Nostrand and Lawrence E. Estaville. p. cm. — (Creating the North American landscape) “Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Harrisonburg, Virginia.” Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. isbn 0-8018-6700-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. United States—Geography. 2. United States—Civilization. 3. Human geography—United States. 4. United States—Description and travel. 5. Regionalism—United States—History. 6. Place (Philosophy). 7. Pluralism (Social sciences)—United States—History. 8. Ethnicity—United States—History. 9. Immigrants—United States—History. 10. Minorities— United States—History. I. Nostrand, Richard L. (Richard Lee), 1939– II. Estaville, Lawrence E. (Lawrence Ernest) III. Center for American Places. IV. Title. V. Series. e161.3 .h66 2001 304.2⬘0973—dc21 00-012362 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
contents
List of Maps, Figures, and Tables vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Free Land, Dry Land, Homeland xiii Richard L. Nostrand and Lawren