Accent on Privilege: English Identities and Anglophilia in the U.S.

by Katharine W. Jones

Overview

In this look at the complexities of immigration, Accent on Privilege asks how race and class are constructed through the eyes of native and immigrant. Katharine Jones investigates how British immigrants live in the United States, and how their status as foreigners is created by both American Anglophilia and the ways they perform their identities as "proper" Britons in their host country. Jones looks at the cultural aspects of this performance: how Brits play up their accents, "British reserve," sense of humor and fashion, even the way they drink beer.

Given the affinity between Great Britan and the US, many British people living in the country do not even consider themselves immigrants. This unique and singular relationship between the US and its immigrant offers an important new understanding of the paradoxes of how class, identity, and race are formed in the US.

Author Biography: Katharine W. Jones is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Philadelphia University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566399005
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	12/28/2001
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	8.48(w) x 7.96(h) x 0.51(d)

Editorial Reviews

Herself an English immigrant, Jones (sociology, Philadelphia Univ.) analyzes the experiences of 34 other white upper- or middle-class English immigrants to the United States. She reveals the variety of methods these immigrants used to enhance or minimize their English identities in daily interactions with Americans (e.g., manipulation of their accents, their fashions, even how they drink beer). She also explores how America's love affair with all things English creates both advantages and restrictions for the immigrants and how they manipulate this Anglophilia to their advantage. A revision of her Ph.D. dissertation, this work suffers from the deficiencies common to that medium. The small number of subjects and the homogeneity of the sample make the study manageable but also render its conclusions statistically insignificant. Even so, the work is useful in exploring the techniques used by some immigrants in their encounters with Americans and the relationship of those techniques to perceived personal and national identities. Recommended for academic libraries with collections in sociology and ethnic/immigrant studies.-Christopher Brennan, SUNY at Brockport Libs. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\

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