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The University of North Carolina Press
368 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 21 illus., notes, index
The Rise of Multicultural America
Economy and Print Culture, 1865-1915
Between the Civil War and World War I the United States underwent the most rapid economic expansion in history. At the same time, the country experienced unparalleled rates of immigration. In The Rise of Multicultural America, Susan Mizruchi examines the convergence of these two extraordinary developments. No issue was more salient in postbellum American capitalist society, she argues, than the country's bewilderingly diverse population. This era marked the emergence of Americans' self-consciousness about what we today call multiculturalism.
Mizruchi approaches this complex development from the perspective of print culture, demonstrating how both popular and elite writers played pivotal roles in articulating the stakes of this national metamorphosis. In a period of widespread literacy, writers assumed a remarkable cultural authority as best-selling works of literature and periodicals reached vast readerships and immigrants could find newspapers and magazines in their native languages. Mizruchi also looks at the work of journalists, photographers, social reformers, intellectuals, and advertisers. Identifying the years between 1865 and 1915 as the founding era of American multiculturalism, Mizruchi provides a historical context that has been overlooked in contemporary debates about race, ethnicity, immigration, and the dynamics of modern capitalist society. Her analysis recuperates a legacy with the potential to both invigorate current battle lines and highlight points of reconciliation.
"[A] fascinating study of the convergence of capitalist development and ethnic identity. . . . Highly recommended."
--Choice
"Takes the reader on a comprehensive journey through many of the major prose writings of the Gilded Age."
--H-Net
"Susan Mizruchi interweaves approaches from women's studies, Black studies, and Native American studies into close readings of major and minor figures of American literature to produce an impressively comprehensive study that should be of interest to the scholar of literature as well as to the historian and the sociologist."
--Werner Sollors, Harvard University
"A capacious yet focused and illuminating book. Mizruchi brilliantly shows multiculturalism, capitalism, and literature to be utterly entwined. Smart and persuasive at all turns, the book is full of savvy starting points and sharp contextualizations that will serve teachers as well as scholars."
--Thomas J. Ferraro, Duke University
Cloth: $65.00
Paper: $24.95
© 2009 The University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
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