7. The future of assimilation

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
David A. Gerber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Cultural Character ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socioeconomic Crisis

Though American institutions and societal processes have been shaped historically around accommodating diversity, and have largely been successful in doing so, as in the past, some Americans believe that the economic circumstances and the racial and cultural character of today’s immigrants are making that increasingly difficult. Persistent questions have arisen about whether immigrants, especially Mexicans, are being propelled into the mainstream, and hence whether American institutions are equal to the task of assimilating immigrants into the civic culture on which democracy depends. This pessimism is deepened by the uncertain position of the United States in the contemporary global economy. Through comparisons with the successfully assimilated immigrants of the past, this chapter evaluates this contemporary pessimism, and concludes that it is, as in the past, overdrawn. On the other hand, optimism about immigrants should not blot out the need to address the socioeconomic crisis of poor and working-class African Americans.

scholarly journals The Chronology of the Revolt of Pescennius Niger

1920 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
G. A. Harrer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Evidence

During the past six years the problem of the chronology of Niger's revolt in Syria has been studied in detail in three separate works. My own appeared in the United States in 1915, a book by Platnauer in England in 1918, and a work by Hasebroek in Germany in 1921. Due to poor means of communication during the war, Platnauer did not see my study, and Hasebroek saw neither Platnauer's nor mine. Since the appearance of his book Platnauer has also published a short paper in The Journal of Roman Studies, taking issue emphatically with my views. This paper, too, escaped Hasebroek's attention. The three studies independently produced are not in harmony. They agree very well on the beginning of the revolt, but differ concerning its course, and concerning the date of its end. Since my own view does not now coincide with either of the other two, but has been modified by both of them, it has seemed worth while to examine them carefully, to study again the available evidence, and, with what new evidence can be brought to bear, to suggest a solution of the problem.

State Constitutional Law in 1946–47

1947 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-732
Author(s):  
Foster H. Sherwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
First Time ◽  
State Constitutional Law ◽  
Constitutional Revision

The oft-heard argument in behalf of federalism that the states furnish important laboratories for social and political experimentation is illustrated by a good many new constitutional provisions interpreted for the first time this year. Two states, Missouri and Georgia, adopted entirely new constitutions in 1945, important sections of which have come before the highest courts for interpretation. One of these, the Georgia constitution of 1945, provides specifically: “Legislative acts in violation of this constitution or the constitution of the United States, are void, and the judiciary shall so declare them.” Such a provision may very well raise more questions than it settles—for example, what effects can be accorded unconstitutional acts?; can the other agencies of government refuse to perform under statutes they consider unconstitutional?; can the judiciary declare acts of the governor and other officers unconstitutional?; etc. Such questions have not as yet been raised. But there is some evidence that we may be embarking on an era of constitutional revision similar to that which followed the Civil War. If so, the problems of constitutional law now being discussed may furnish a clue to the kind of new documents to be written. This year the emphasis has been on civil rights and methods of adjusting state finances to the rapidly fluctuating value of the dollar—problems which naturally arise out of the intense social and economic conflicts of the past decade.

scholarly journals Reassessing the Past: Memory and Identity in Toni Morrisonʼs Home

2021 ◽  
pp. 487-503
Author(s):  
Ksenija M. Kondali ◽  
Sandra V. Novkinic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bell Hooks ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Fantastic

Toni Morrison’s superior literary oeuvre reconsiders the American past by introducing memories of subjects who have been ignored or misrepresented in official history, with particular attention to their identity construction. This paper aims to examine how the neglected history of African Americans is reconstructed in Morrison’s novel Home (2012) through remembrances of the protagonist, a Korean War veteran. His attempts to recall his personal and his family’s past shape the quest for identity. Concurrently, the narrative about the characters’ fates prompts a deeper retrospective of American race relations and debunks the myth of “the Fantastic Fifties” in the United States. Using scholarship on this topic and critical viewpoints of authors such as bell hooks about home in African Americans’ lives, this analysis seeks to explore Morrison’s novel Home, concentrating on how identity is constructed in the process of the main character’s remembrances of the past and growth toward self-respect

scholarly journals Library Science Education in the U.S.A.

2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Sommers Pierce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Programs ◽  
Library Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Library Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
Substantial Change

Classical librarianship drowns in the sea of change. in the United States our profession had indicated a profound change -especially in the last 20 years. Until 1976, 15 schools or departments of librarianship had been closed, and the rest had undergone a serious transformation. During the last 20 years, library education became no more homogeneous as it was in the past. New educational programs show vast diversity. The scope of the mission of library services became enlarged. Type of students, ways of teaching had also indicated a substantial change. On the other hand, the librarian of today requires lifelong self­education.

Alexis de Tocqueville: At the Crossroads of History

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Daniel Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

In the nineteenth and down into the twentieth century, France and the United States offered two contrasting images to each other, one of the past, the other of the future. Both considered themselves as exceptional societies. But the term exceptional differed in the two countries. Exceptional, in France, meant uncommon, a civilization uniquely marked by its culture. Exceptional, for the United States, meant a fate different from the historical course of degeneration of other nations.

Vietnamese Are Not Genetically Short

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 1024-1024
Author(s):  
AMOS S. DEINARD
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Japanese Children ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Commentary ◽  
American Children

To the Editor.— Dr Stickler, in a recent commentary (Pediatrics 1984;74:559), mentions as an example of genetic short stature the child of a Vietnamese refugee. My experience during the past 5 years with the Vietnamese as well as the other Southeast Asian groups (lowland Lao, Hmong, and Cambodian) who have immigrated to the United States since 1979 suggests that their growth may be no different from that of post-World War II Japanese children, ie, with good maternal and postnatal medical care and nutrition, children will grow at levels comparable to American children on whom the growth curves were normed.

The Contributions of Frederick C. Mills

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory R. Woirol
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Peak Period ◽  
Economic Discourse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Future ◽  
A Minor

Economics in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s was notable for the richness of its methodological and theoretical approaches. Encompassing the peak period of American institutionalism, these years also witnessed a recurrent debate over the proper scope and method of economics which was bracketed by a minor methodenstreit in the 1920s and the measurement-withouttheory dispute of the late 1940s. In retrospect it is apparent which lines of thought would dominate economic discourse in later decades. At the time, however, this future was not as clear. A late 1920s evaluation by Paul Homan of the state of contemporary economics concluded that economists “seem in our own day to be separated by more impassable barriers of thought than at any time in the past” (Homan 1928, p. 10). In looking beyond “the present impasse,” as he called it, Homan concluded that “whether economics in the future shall consist of a body of doctrines, or a body of facts scientifically ascertained, or a technique, or more or less of one and the other, is on the laps of the gods” (ibid., pp. 466-67).

Trio A in Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramsay Burt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dance History ◽  
Pedestrian Movement ◽  
The Past ◽  
French Group ◽  
Live Art

Since the mid-1990s European dancers and audiences have played a significant role in the revival of interest in Yvonne Rainer's dance work. Two key examples of this are the restaging of Rainer's Continuous Project-Altered Daily (CP-AD) in 1996 by the French group Quatuor Albrecht Knust and the more recent creation and trial of the Labanotation score of Trio A in London. In her reminiscences printed above, Pat Catterson suggests that Trio A' s “relaxed natural quality, equality of parts, its tame simplicity, and durational patience may be out of synch with today's Zeitgeist.” During Charles Atlas's documentary, Rainer Variations, Rainer herself suggests today's audiences would no longer be prepared to sit through the long slow works she made during the Judson period. If this is currently the case with audiences in the United States, it is not so on the other side of the Atlantic. European audiences for innovative dance and live art seem prepared to take the time to experience and appreciate slow, demanding, experimental work.European choreographers and dance artists who have been interested in Trio A often have a keen and sophisticated, if idiosyncratic, interest in dance history. Artists I have spoken to suggest this interest helps them build on what has already been done and makes them aware of a broader range of creative possibilities. Some say they find it useful to discover dance artists in the past who were working in ways that are similar to their own practices. For example, Xavier Le Roy, who took part in the 1996 restaging of Rainer's CP-AD, performed the “chair pillow” section from it during his 1999 performative lecture Product of Circumstances. His discovery of ordinary, task-based, and pedestrian movement in Rainer's work affirmed his own research into similar kinds of movement.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-168
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Noyalas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Entire Volume ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Open Mind ◽  
Key Points ◽  
New Evidence

The book’s conclusion provides perspective on several key points. First, leaning on the viewpoint of distinguished historian Nell Irvin Painter, the conclusion establishes that the historical interpretation of the past is fluid and must evolve as new evidence and viewpoints emerge. Additionally, the conclusion highlights the idea prevalent throughout the book which contends that emancipation did not occur at one singular moment, but rather on multiple occasions. Third, this study’s conclusion highlights the theme of hope, another thread which runs throughout the entire volume. While the book’s conclusion highlights the importance of hope to African Americans, it also points out the author’s hope that individuals can begin to approach this difficult topic with objectivity and an open mind in order to gain a more complete understanding of the complexities of the United States’ most tumultuous and transformative moment.

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