Industrialization and assimilation : understanding ethnic change in the modern world

Industrialization and Assimilation is among the first books to focus on the process of ethnic identity change in a broad context. Green's evidence causally explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour and removing people from the 'idiocy of rural life,' industrialization is a powerful agent for making societies more ethnically homogenous. More specifically, the author argues that industrialization lowers the relative value of rural land, leading people to identify less with narrow rural identities in favor of broader identities that can aid them navigate the formal urban economy. Using case studies ranging from mid-twentieth-century Turkey to contemporary Botswana, Somalia, and Uganda, as well as examples of Native Americans in the United States and the Māori in New Zealand, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to establish the relationship between industrialization and ethnic homogenization. "Industrialization and Assimilation is among the first books to focus on the process of ethnic identity change in a broad context. Green's evidence causally explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labor and removing people from the "idiocy of rural life," industrialization is a powerful agent for making societies more ethnically homogenous. More specifically, the author argues that industrialization lowers the relative value of rural land, leading people to identify less with narrow rural identities in favor of broader identities that can aid them navigate the formal urban economy. Using case studies ranging from mid-20th century Turkey to contemporary Botswana, Somalia, and Uganda, as well as examples of Native Americans in the United States and the Māori in New Zealand, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to establish the relationship between industrialization and ethnic homogenization"-- Provided by publisher Industrialization and Assimilation examines the process of ethnic identity change in a broad historical context. Green explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour and removing people from the 'idiocy of rural life', industrialization makes societies more ethnically homogenous. More specifically, the author argues that industrialization lowers the relative value of rural land, leading people to identify less with narrow rural identities in favour of broader identities that can aid them in navigating the formal urban economy. Using large-scale datasets that span the globe as well as detailed case studies ranging from mid-twentieth-century Turkey to contemporary Botswana, Somalia and Uganda, as well as evidence from Native Americans in the United States and the Māori in New Zealand, Industrialization and Assimilation provides a new framework to understand the origins of modern ethnic identities.