The history of Norwegian settlement in the United States has
often been told through the eyes of prominent men, while the women
are imagined in the form of O. E. Rolvaag's fictionalized heroine
Beret Holm, who made the best of life on the frontier but whose
gaze seemed ever fixed on her long-lost home. The true picture is
more complex. In an area spanning the Midwest and rural West and
urban areas such as Seattle, Chicago, and Brooklyn, Norwegian
American women found themselves in varied circumstances, ranging
from factory worker to domestic, impoverished to leisured. Offering
a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach, Norwegian American
Women: Migration, Communities, and Identities considers the stories
of this immigrant group through a gendered lens.
Nine noted scholars situate these women in the history,
literature, politics, and culture of both their ancestral home and
the new land, interpreting their multifarious lives and the
communities they helped build. pieces on wide-ranging topics by
Betty A. Bergland, Laurann Gilbertson, Karen v. Hansen, Lori Ann
Lahlum, Ann M. Legreid, Odd S. Lovoll, Elisabeth Lonna, David
C.
Mauk, and Ingrid K. Urberg are bookended by Elizabeth Jameson's
lively foreword and Dina Tolfsby's detailed bibliography,
comprising a collection that enlightens at the same time that it
inspires further investigations into the lives of women in
Norwegian America.
Betty A. Bergland is professor of history at the University of
Wisconsin-River Falls. Lori Ann Lahlum is associate professor of
history at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
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