Ethnic Groups in American History
Professor Diner: firstname.lastname@example.org
Office: 208 KJCC
Office Hours: Mondays, 11-12, Fridays, 9:30-10:30 and by appointment
This course, “Ethnic Groups in American History” explores ethnic group life in
America, focusing on the ways in which migrations have shaped this crucial aspect of the
nation’s history. We will be looking at this phenomenon from the seventeenth century
onward until the present as we ask how women and men who migrated to American came
to define themselves as members of particular ethnic groups and how those definitions
changed over time. We will examine various aspects of group life –work, religion, food,
family, language, politics, community performance, to mention but a few issues—and
will look at the different ways in which these played themselves out in the various groups
that under consideration. We will keep in mind that the groups that have made up
America’s ethnic mosaic are historic constructs and that within these entities thought of
as “groups,” a variety of often conflicting definitions of what membership meant,
competed and flourished. Additionally we will think about the ways in which outside
forces –particularly American mainstream public opinion and law-- molded community
identity and influenced the invention of ethnicity.
As an exploration of history, this course will be concerned with change over time and
will ask questions about continuity and divergence in this long and complicated history.
What similarities and differences can we see in the ways by which migrants became
ethnic group members, when considering the long span of several centuries? How do we
account for change and how do we account for persistence? The course readings include
both works produced by historians as well as several primary sources which will allow
students the chance to engage with the words and insights of the immigrants themselves.
As just a note of caution before we begin: this course cannot treat every ethnic group.
The sheer volume and diversity of groups make that impossible and the groups chosen
here represent merely the instructor’s evaluation of the available texts and not the
importance of these particular groups.
Roger Daniels, Coming to America
Michael Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks
Linda Pickle, Contented Among Strangers
Cahan, Abraham, Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom
Hasia Diner, Hungering for America
George Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American
Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones
Leon Fink, The Maya of Morgantown
Tung Pok Chin, Paper Son
Chad Berry, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles
1. Students are expected to read all the books and be prepared to discuss them in the
2. For Gomez, Sanchez, Pickle, Barry, and Fink students will prepare a one or two
page synopsis of the book which will answer the following questions:
a. what question is the author asking?
b. what kind of sources did the author use?
c. how is the book organized?
d. what conclusion has the author arrived at?
e. does the evidence support the conclusion?
For Diner, students will prepare a one page synopsis on for each group, namely,
the Irish, Italians, and east European Jews.
For Chin, Cahan, and Murray students will prepare a one-two page
reaction paper which explores the connections between the experiences
described in these primary sources, and the larger historical narrative.
[the reaction papers together will account for 25 percent of the grade.]
3. There will be a mid-term examination in October
[25 percent of the grade]
4. There will be a final examination which will be evaluated at 50 percent of the
grade and will account for 50 percent of the grade.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS:
Week 1: 9/3Introduction to the course: Theories of migration, theories of ethnicity
Week 2: 9/8-9/10: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Migrations:
Daniels, 3-52, 66-100.
Week 3: 9/15-9/17: The Slave Trade and Forced Migration
Daniels, 53-65, 101-118, GOMEZ, entire book
Week 4: 9/22-9/24: Mid-Nineteenth Century Migration: The “Old Immigration”
Daniels, pp. 121-184, PICKLE, entire book
Week 5: 9/29 Irish Immigration and Ethnicity [no class10/1]
Diner, pp. 84-145
Week 6: 10/6-10/8: Irish Immigration Continue.
Week 7: 10/15: The New Immigration 18802-1920s
Daniels, pp. 185-237
Week 8: 10/20-10/22: Italian Immigrants
Daniels, pp. 265-284; Diner, pp. 21-83
Week 9: 10/27-29: East European Jews
Diner, pp. 146-230; Cahan, entire book
Week 10: 11/3-11/5 Migration Across the Pacific
Daniels, 238-264, CHIN, entire book
Week 11: 11/10-11/12: Migrations Without “Salt Water”
Sanchez, entire book
Week 12: 11/17-11/19: Migrations and Ethnicity After Restriction:
Migrations and Ethnicity After Restriction
Daniels, 287-327, MARSHAL, entire book
WEEK 13 11/24-11/26 Ethnicity Without Immigration
Barry, entire book
Week 14: 12/1-12/3: 1965 and Beyond
Daniels, pp. 371-387, FINK, entire book **In addition students will view the
film, “El Norte” which will be on reserve Avery Fisher, 2nd Floor Bobst
Week 15: 12/8-12/10 Immigration and Ethnicity into the 21st Century:
Review for Final
PLEASE NOTE: ******All written work must conform to university guidelines
about plagiarism. If you use someone else’s words you must put them in quotes and you
must give them credit through proper citation form. ************************
SOME NOTES OF CLASS ETIQUETTE
**DO NOT USE CELL PHONES. HAVE THEM COMPLETELY TURNED OFF
**BE ON TIME. UNLESS THERE IS SOME EMERGENCY, YOU ARE
EXPECTED TO ARRIVE PROMPTLY
** DO NOT GET UP AND LEAVE DURING CLASS. IF THERE IS A
MEDICAL EMERGENCY YOU PROBABLY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO COME
**DO NOT EAT IN CLASS.