The Democratic Gap. Transcultural Confrontations of German Immigrants and the Promise of American Democracy

Fulltext:
133610pos.pdf
Embargo:
until further notice
Size:
1.919Mb
Format:
PDF
Description:
postprint version
Fulltext:
133610_Introduction.pdf
Size:
536.6Kb
Format:
PDF
Description:
publisher's version
Publication year
2014Author(s)
Publisher
Heidelberg : Universitätsverlag Winter
Series
European Views of the United States ; 5
ISBN
9783825361709
Number of pages
XXIII, 403 p.
Publication type
Book (monograph)

Display more detailsDisplay less details
Organization
Engelse Taal en Cultuur
Languages used
English (eng)
Subject
European Views of the United States; Europe and its Worlds after 1800; Memory, Materiality and Meaning in the Age of TransnationalismAbstract
Why has the promise of American democracy been so persuasive to immigrants despite prejudice regarding cultural inferiority, a history of slavery and genocide, violations of human rights, media manipulations, and imperial self-righteousness? How can we analyze, understand, and evaluate the response patterns of immigrants, which evolved after the shock of arrival in the United States and the encounter with severe democratic shortcomings? This book investigates patriotic dissent of naturalized German immigrants to overcome what I call “the democratic gap,” namely the discrepancy between democratic ideals and practices. By turning to six force fields (abolitionism, female emancipation, cultural pluralism, patriotic performance culture, the civil rights movement, and Holocaust consciousness), a comparison of democratic criticism between German immigrants and African American writers reveals the underlying premises of transcultural confrontations and hidden motives behind declarations of Americanness. The response patterns discussed are also relevant for other immigrant groups such as Asian Americans, Arab Americans, or Hispanic and Latino Americans.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [227425]
- Electronic publications [107141]
- Faculty of Arts [28541]
- Open Access publications [76287]
Upload full text
Use your RU credentials (u/z-number and password) to log in with SURFconext to upload a file for processing by the repository team.