Assimilation and the meaning of America, 1915--2005.

摘要

This dissertation examines contested notions of American national identity over the period 1915-2005, using dialogical discourse analysis and the methods of historical sociology. Based upon the claim that thoughts about assimilation reveal thoughts about the nation, the investigation centers on three historical moments where immigration was a prominent national issue, using as its focal writings Horace Kallen's "Democracy vs. the Melting-Pot" (1915), Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Beyond the Melting Pot (1963), and Samuel Huntington's Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (2004).; In contrast to most theoretical literature on nations, which often suggests that nations and their identities are largely monolithic and static, the findings here show that throughout the period under investigation, multiple narratives of America were always present, with particular ones being dominant in each moment. The examination of such imaginings of America illustrates the way social context affects not only which stories are more or less compelling in a given moment, but also the particulars of these stories. This dissertation locates a narrative arc such that nativist rhetoric commonly espoused at the turn of the twentieth century during a period of high levels of immigration is being revised and offered anew in the midst of the high levels of immigration present at the turn of the twenty-first century. Simultaneously, and provocatively, the story of the assimilative powers of America as a melting pot has been able to fully establish itself as one definition of America, while that of a diverse, pluralist America---a multicultural America---has also gained standing.; The appeal and traction of particular imaginings of America prove to be dependent upon many social factors. This study looks at assimilation, wars and foreign affairs, the economy, and other social movements. Each of these speaks to the concerns of this project, but ultimately my findings show that immigration and involvement in foreign affairs play the more significant roles in the construction, maintenance, and renovation of national stories.