The Minds of the West : Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917

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. In the century proceeding World War I. The American Middle West drew thousands of immigrants coming from Europe - principally Scandinavia, Germany, and the British Isles - and migrants moving westward from the northeastern United States. Jo Gjerde brings to life the unceasing process of redefining bonds to family, church, community, and nation.l In the century preceding World War I, the American middle-west drew thousands of immigrants from Europe and the northeastern United States, representing a place where a new American culture could be created. This text examines the cultural patterns, or "minds", that the settlers brought with them. An examination of the cultural patterns that migrants carried with them as they settled in the US Midwest in the 19th century. It compares patterns of development and acculturation across immigrant groups and the means by which ethnic groups built themselves a representative voice. The westward migration across the Appalachian range in the antebellum era was a phenomenon of singular importance to the development of the United States.