Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields
In 1890, more than 100,000 Welsh-born immigrants resided in the United States. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. Readily accepted by American society, Welsh immigrants experienced a unique process of acculturation. In the first history of this exceptional community, Ronald Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how their rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh American culture.

Lewis describes how Welsh immigrants brought their national churches, fraternal orders and societies, love of literature and music, and, most important, their own language. Yet unlike eastern and southern Europeans and the Irish, the Welsh--even with their "foreign" ways--encountered no apparent hostility from the Americans. Often within a single generation, Welsh cultural institutions would begin to fade and a new "Welsh American" identity developed.

True to the perspective of the Welsh themselves, Lewis's analysis adopts a transnational view of immigration, examining the maintenance of Welsh coal-mining culture in the United States and in Wales. By focusing on Welsh coal miners, Welsh Americans illuminates how Americanization occurred among a distinct group of skilled immigrants and demonstrates the diversity of the labor migrations to a rapidly industrializing America.
"1111441692"
Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields
In 1890, more than 100,000 Welsh-born immigrants resided in the United States. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. Readily accepted by American society, Welsh immigrants experienced a unique process of acculturation. In the first history of this exceptional community, Ronald Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how their rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh American culture.

Lewis describes how Welsh immigrants brought their national churches, fraternal orders and societies, love of literature and music, and, most important, their own language. Yet unlike eastern and southern Europeans and the Irish, the Welsh--even with their "foreign" ways--encountered no apparent hostility from the Americans. Often within a single generation, Welsh cultural institutions would begin to fade and a new "Welsh American" identity developed.

True to the perspective of the Welsh themselves, Lewis's analysis adopts a transnational view of immigration, examining the maintenance of Welsh coal-mining culture in the United States and in Wales. By focusing on Welsh coal miners, Welsh Americans illuminates how Americanization occurred among a distinct group of skilled immigrants and demonstrates the diversity of the labor migrations to a rapidly industrializing America.
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Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields

Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields

by Ronald L. Lewis
Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields

Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields

by Ronald L. Lewis

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Overview

In 1890, more than 100,000 Welsh-born immigrants resided in the United States. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. Readily accepted by American society, Welsh immigrants experienced a unique process of acculturation. In the first history of this exceptional community, Ronald Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how their rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh American culture.

Lewis describes how Welsh immigrants brought their national churches, fraternal orders and societies, love of literature and music, and, most important, their own language. Yet unlike eastern and southern Europeans and the Irish, the Welsh--even with their "foreign" ways--encountered no apparent hostility from the Americans. Often within a single generation, Welsh cultural institutions would begin to fade and a new "Welsh American" identity developed.

True to the perspective of the Welsh themselves, Lewis's analysis adopts a transnational view of immigration, examining the maintenance of Welsh coal-mining culture in the United States and in Wales. By focusing on Welsh coal miners, Welsh Americans illuminates how Americanization occurred among a distinct group of skilled immigrants and demonstrates the diversity of the labor migrations to a rapidly industrializing America.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780807887905
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 06/01/2009
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 408
File size: 8 MB

About the Author

Ronald L. Lewis is Stuart and Joyce Robbins Chair and Professor of History Emeritus at West Virginia University. He is author or editor of fourteen books, including Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia, 1880-1920 (from the University of North Carolina Press).

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface Introduction
1. Emigration, Immigration
2. Superintendents, Networks, and Welsh Settlement Patterns
3. Community, Republicanism, and Social Mobility
4. Welsh American Cultural Institutions
5. Professional Inspectors for a Disaster-Prone Industry
6. Ethnic Conflict: The Welsh and Irish in Anthracite Country
7. The Slav "Invasion" and the Welsh "Exodus"
8. Welsh American Union Leadership
9. Nantymoel to Hollywood: The Incredible Journey of Mary Thomas Epilogue: Americanization and Welsh Identity Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Concerns and methodology are scholarly—Lewis's] notes offer a valuable bibliography of Welsh American primary and secondary sources—but he writes in an accessible style and takes time to spin stories of upwardly mobile Welshmen.—Planet: The Welsh Internationalist

Lewis demonstrates that by fulfilling the American dream, Welsh immigrants eventually lost their identity. He offers a sustained and at times brilliant meditation on this theme, integrated into a general history that unfolds compellingly over time. Welsh Americans is a rich, mature, and fascinating piece of historical scholarship that will quickly assume its place as the definitive work on its topic and an important work of American immigration history.—Kevin Kenny, Boston College

In addition to providing a new dimension to our understanding of American ethnic groups in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Welsh Americans adds significantly to current understanding of the processes of industrialization in America, particularly the development of the coal mining industry. Interesting, insightful, and convincing, this book will be welcomed as a fresh and timely study.—William D. Jones, Cardiff University, Wales

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