Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 [Hardcover]

Jon Gjerde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

In the century preceding World War I, the American Middle West drew thousands of migrants both from Europe and from the northeastern United States. In the American mind, the region represented a place where social differences could be muted and a distinctly American culture created. Many of the European groups, however, viewed the Midwest as an area of opportunity because it allowed them to retain cultural and religious traditions from their homelands.

Jon Gjerde examines the cultural patterns, or "minds," that those settling the Middle West carried with them. He argues that such cultural transplantation could occur because patterns of migration tended to reunite people of similar pasts and because the rural Midwest was a vast region where cultural groups could sequester themselves in tight-knit settlements built around familial and community institutions.

Gjerde compares patterns of development and acculturation across immigrant groups, exploring the frictions and fissures experienced within and between communities. Finally, he examines the means by which individual ethnic groups built themselves a representative voice, joining the political and social debate on both a regional and national level.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is, in many ways, ground-breaking.

Rural History

Its lens gives a more complicated, more interesting West and nation.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Surely [this is] among the very best studies of ethnicity we have.

Reviews in American History

This is a valuable contribution to ethnic, social, and regional history and should receive a wide audience.

Western Historical Quarterly

This book will be essential for anyone studying the Middle West and American social, cultural, and intellectual history.

American Anthropologist --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

A social history of the Middle West, as it evolved from a patchwork of isolated immigrant cultures into a region of coalesced ethnic groups within a pluralist American society. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 442 pages
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press; 1ST edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807823120
• ISBN-13: 978-0807823125
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful Book on Middle West Settlement, February 18, 2000

By 

Ken Meyer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (Hardcover)

Gjerde has written a useful book for understanding the conflict immigrants experienced while trying to recreate their native cultures in the American Middle West amid the materialism and individualism they encountered in the process. Gjerde terms it "complementary identity": the immigrants (German, Irish, and Norwegian are who Gjerde focuses on) viewed themselves as Americans enjoying traditional republican freedoms while practicing their native traditions and rituals. The tension resulted in large part because there was no way the immigrants could keep American commercial values from invading their communities, no matter how isolated they were. The main weakness of the book is its structure. The chapters start out dense and abstract and end the same way with hard to grasp conclusions. The guts of the chapters, though, are easy to read and contain enjoyable examples from diaries, letters, and newspapers. Another weakness is that Gjerde paints a picture of the American migrants as being materialist nativists of all one mind set, which is simplifying the situation too much. Having limited knowledge of the subject matter, I found the book enjoyable if at times difficult to read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of interesting history, August 28, 2010

By 

BobR - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (Paperback)

The author did deep research into the immigration history of the upper mississippi valley (Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota) about the upper european immigration from 1850 to 1890. If you had family who settled in that time, it will enlighten your impressions of your ancestors. Be prepared for a tough academic read though.

1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Studies like these are why academic books aren't much read, November 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (Paperback)

Gjerde's premise is interesting--there were two groups of immigrants to the upper mid west in the mid to late 1800's. One was "Yankee" from New England and the other foreign, particularly Germans, Swedes, Norwiegens and some Irish. The latter formed isolated, insular communities and tried to reconsturct communities based on a shared religous, cultural and linguistic commonality. This was looked on with alarm by many Americans, who worried that these folks would not assimilate and were dangerous to traditional American republicanism. Unfortunatley, Gjerde sounds much more like a sociologist than a historian, esp. when he comes to describe the "tension filled" families of those from Europe who (to Gjerde) were too hard on their spouses, made their children work without paying them for it (horrors!) and perhaps had loveless, unemotional relationships with their spouses (though Gjerde provides no credible evidence for this last concoction.) He also has a Berkeley professor's view of the farm----he continually describes the work as onerous, arduous, brutal, drudgery, etc. He never considers the joy and satisfaction from working the land, even if it is at times hard. I suspect the nearest Gjerde has been to a farm is the produce section at his food coop.

Although there are some merits to the book, Gjerde's poor use of evidence (relies on novels as factual evidence instead of, well, facts!), his overuse of academic jargon, ridiculous depiction of children and the family, and omiting a discussion of populism make this book one to avoid.