Nordic whiteness and migration to the USA : a historical exploration of identity / edited by Jana Sverdljuk, Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger, Erika K. Jackson and Peter Kivisto.
Introduction: Whiteness in Nordic immigrants' identity formation / Jana Sverdljuk, Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger, Erika K. Jackson, and Peter Kivisto -- Norwegian migration and displaced indigenous peoples: Toward an understanding of Nordic whiteness in the land-taking / Betty A. Bergland -- Racialization of the Sámi in early twentieth-century migration processes: Trans-atlantic continuities and divergences / Ellen Marie Jensen -- "On liberty and equality": Race and reconstruction among Scandinavian immigrants, 1864-1868 / Anders Bo Rasmussen -- Atop a hierarchy of whiteness: Danish Americans as portrayed by Danish travel writers in the second half of the nineteenth century / Jørn Brøndal -- Good Americans "born of a good people": Race, whiteness, and nationalism among Norwegian Americans in the Pacific Northwest / Hans-Petter Grav -- Ideal immigrants? Ethnic community building among Norwegian Americans in the nineteenth century / Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger -- In the American matrix: Norwegians in Chicago in the nineteenth century / Odd Sverre Lovoll -- Claiming roots: Politics of racial ancestry in the Finnish-American press during the 1938 New Sweden Tercentenary / Aleksi Huhta -- The Nordic mystique: Swedish women as sexualized "other" in postwar America / Erika K. Jackson -- Conclusion: Nordic slotting into the American ethno-racial hierarchy / Peter Kivisto.
Summary:
"This volume explores the complex and contradictory ways in which the cultural, scientific and political myth of whiteness has influenced identities, self-perceptions and the process of integration of Nordic immigrants into multicultural and racially segregated American society in the 19th and 20th centuries. In deploying central insights from whiteness studies, postcolonial feminist and intersectionality theories, it shows that Nordic immigrants - Danes, Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Sámi - contributed to and challenged American racism and white identity. A diverse group of immigrants, they could proclaim themselves 'hyper-white' and 'better citizens than anybody else', including Anglo-Saxons, thus taking for granted the racial bias of American citizenship and ownership rights, yet there were also various, unexpected intersections of whiteness with ethnicity, regional belonging, gender, sexuality, and political views. 'Nordic whiteness', then, was not a monolithic notion in the USA and could be challenged by other identities, which could even turn white Nordic immigrants into marginalized figures. A fascinating study of whiteness and identity among white migrants in the USA, Nordic Whiteness will appeal to scholars of sociology, history and anthropology with interests in Scandinavian studies, migration and diaspora studies and American studies"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.