Writing American history;: Essays on modern scholarship

History

Higham, John

Historical Study & Educational Resources

University of Indiana Press

This book presents three decades of writings by one of America’s most distinguished historians. John Higham, renowned for his influential works on immigration, ethnicity, political symbolism, and the writing of history, here traces the changing contours of American culture since its beginnings, focusing on the ways that an extraordinarily mobile society has allowed divergent ethnic, class, and ideological groups to “hang together” as Americans. The book includes classic essays by Higham and more recent writings, some of which have been substantially revised for this publication. Topics range widely from the evolution of American national symbols and the fate of our national character to new perspectives on the New Deal, on other major turning points, and on changes in race relations after major American wars. Yet they are unified by an underlying theme: that a heterogeneous society and an inclusive national culture need each other.

Hanging Together: Unity and Diversity in American Culture

Americas

Yale University Press

Described by Lord Justice Millett as 'a book which no serious practitioner specialising in the subject can afford to be without', this important work deals specifically with corporate administration and CVAs in the context of business recovery and rescue. It takes a logical, practical approach to the subject area and includes an introductory chapter placing administration in the context of the current rescue culture. The work covers changes to the law in accordance with the following four Acts - the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000, the Insolvency Act 2000 and the Enterprise Act 2002.

Fletcher, Higham & Trower: Corporate Administrations and Rescue Procedures

Fletcher, Ian.

Tower, William

Butterworths Tolley

The monumental Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups is the most authoritative single source available on the history, culture, and distinctive characteristics of ethnic groups in the United States. The Dimensions of Ethnicity series is designed to make this landmark scholarship available to everyone in a series of handy paperbound student editions. Selections in this series will include outstanding articles that illuminate the social dynamics of a pluralistic nation or masterfully summarize the experience of key groups.Written by the best-qualified scholars in each field, Dimensions of Ethnicity will reflect the complex interplay between assimilation and pluralism that is a central theme of the American experience.

The Politics of Ethnicity (Belknap Press)

Politics & Social Sciences

Walzer, Michael

Harrington, Mona

Kantowicz, Edward T.

Anthropology

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

Send these to me: Jews and other immigrants in urban America

Business & Money

Economics

Atheneum

"John Higham, our most distinguished American social and intellectual historian, has the ability to integrate and synthesize superbly the latest scholarship on immigration and ethnic history and nativism".--Victor Greene, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Send These to Me: Immigrants in Urban America

The Johns Hopkins University Press

"No one writes more thoughtfully or interestingly about the history of the profession than Higham does." - Laurence Veysey, University of California, Santa Cruz. "A classic in the field, probably the best overall picture of American historiography we have." - Richard L. Bushman, University of Delaware.

History: Professional Scholarship in America

Johns Hopkins University Press

Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925

Nativism has been hard for historians to define. The word is distinctively American, a product of a specific chain of events in eastern American cities in the late 1830's and early 1840's. Yet it has a meaning so broad and indefinite that sometimes it seems to refer to a perennial human experience. Does nativism consist only of a particular complex of attitudes dominant in the anti-foreign crusade of the mid-nineteenth century? Or does it extend to every occasion when native inhabitants of a country turn their faces or raise their hands against strangers in their midst? What is nativism?

Strangers In The Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925

Rutgers University Press

Higham's work stands as the seminal work in the history of American nativism. The work is a careful, well-documented study of nationalism and ethnic prejudice, and chronicles the power and violence of these two ideas in American society from 1860 to 1925. He significantly moves beyond previous treatments of nativism, both in chronology and in interpretive sophistication. Higham defines nativism as a defensive type of nationalism or an intense opposition to an internal minority on the grounds of the group's foreign connections. By defining nativism as a set of attitudes or a state of mind, he sets the course for his book as tracing "trace an emotionally charged impulse" rather than "an actual social process or condition." As he argues that the ideological content of nativism remained consistent, he uses emotional intensity as a measure to trace in detail public opinion from the relative calm following the Civil War to the Johnson-Reed act of 1924 that severely limited European immigration. Strangers in the Land is, then, a history of public opinion, whose purpose is to show how nativism evolved in society and in action. Higham seeks to explain what could inflame xenophobia and who resisted it. He saw his work as part of a renewed interest in the study of nationalism following the national upheavals in the wake of the McCarthy hearings. Surely Higham's mentor at the University of Wisconsin, intellectual historian Merle Curti, influenced Higham's approach in seeking to examine the power of nationalism as an idea. Also influential was the intellectual climate of the 1950s with its of distrust of ideology and distain of prejudice. Higham admits being repelled by the nationalist delusions of the Cold War, again helping to explain why his study concentrates on seeking some explanation for the irrational and violent outbreaks. The book thus focuses on points of conflict, "antagonisms that belong within ideologies of passionate national consciousness." For example, Higham's explains the 100 percent American movement in terms of progressive ideals and the desire of Americans to shape immigrants into a particular ideal of "Americanness" through education and assimilation. This intellectual construct eventually gave way to the racial thinking to which Higham assigns much influence in the efforts to restrict immigration. Ideology is also central to his chapter on the history of the idea of racism in which he argues that Anglo-Saxon nationalism, literary naturalism and a nascent understanding of genetics combined to bring forth arguments for immigration restriction to preserve the racial purity of the American people. Thus, key for Higham's argument is the power of ideas in shaping individual behavior and thereby shaping history. This text is an absolute must-read for anyone seeking to understand American nativism and the darker side of nationalism.

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Books by Higham, John