A01=Mary C. Waters
america
american immigration
americans
Author_Mary C. Waters
california
Category=JBSL
Category=JHM
choosing identities
community
contemporary american life
descendents
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnic choices
ethnic heritage
ethnic identities
ethnicity
european immigrants
fourth generation americans
individuality
middle class whites
non white americans
nonfiction
pennsylvania
politics
psychology
race ethnicity
shared culture
social sciences
sociology
symbolic ethnicity
third generation
united states
white ethnics
Product details
- ISBN 9780520070837
- Weight: 318g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 09 Aug 1990
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In this perceptive and revealing study, Mary Waters explores the 'reinvention' of ethnicity in the lives of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of European immigrants, asking how their ethnic heritage is lived, maintained, and celebrated. Through in-depth interviews with sixty third and fourth generation white ethnics in suburban California and Pennsylvania, the author discovers a surprisingly resilient sense of ethnicity among people who could reasonably label themselves simply 'American'. Mary Waters' research brings to light a fascinating history of American immigration, revealing aspects of a shared culture and ideology and the unique ways in which ethnic identities fulfill very American needs. Describing the 'symbolic ethnicity' of later generation white ethnics as a quintessential American phenomenon, she argues that ethnicity has retained its importance in our lives precisely because it allows people to reconcile the contradictory American values of choice, individuality, and community.
In addition to her exploration of the symbolic ethnicity of later generation middle-class whites, Mary Waters addresses its cost to society, contrasting it with the optionless ethnicity of non-white Americans. Her conclusions in "Ethnic Options" constitute an invaluable contribution to our understanding of contemporary American life.
Mary C. Waters is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.
