US HISTORY: SPICONARDI The Immigration Question: How should American respond to immigration in late 19 th /early 20 th century?

Starter What is your single favorite thing to eat? Be specific. Don’t just say candy or Italian food. Name a specific dish.

Contributions Italians  Culinary (pasta, pizza, etc.)  Masonry  Stonework on many of New York’s buildings & The Kensico Dam.

Contributions Jews  Yiddish Theater  Bagels  Seamstresses & tailors in NYC’s Garment District

Contributions Poles  Polka music  Along with Italians, Slavs, Hungarians, and Mexicans, Poles increased America’s Catholic population  Worked the coal mines of Pennsylvania

Assimilation Assimilation  the process in which a minority culture becomes part of the dominant culture How did immigrants assimilate?  Citizenship classes  Dressed American  Changed Diet/cook ethnic food with American ingredients  Attempted to speak English  Fourth of July = Il Forte Gelato Who do you think had the hardest and easiest time assimilating?

Nativism Nativism  Belief that immigration was soiling the superior native-born American Protestant values and culture Nativists tried to lobby for legislation to restrict immigration  Oddly, it was the descendants of old immigrants that were often among the nativists protesting the arrival of new immigrants

Pluralism Pluralism  When a smaller cultural group within a larger culturally dominant group society maintains unique cultural traits and those cultural traits are considered worth having in the dominant cultural group.  Sometimes referred to as the salad bowl theory  Each part of the salad is identifiable, but creates a new, larger whole.

Is there American Culture?