Discusses how American culture has been shaped by and has affected immigrants Interest in ethnic studies and multiculturalism has grown considerably in the 12 years since the publication of the first edition of this work. Co-editors Ratner and Buenker have revised and updated their work to reflect the changes, patterns, and shifts in immigration, showing how American culture affects them and is affected by them. Common topics that helped determine the degree and pace of acculturation for each ethnic group are addressed in each of the 17 essays, providing the reader with a comparative reference tool. Seven new ethnic groups are included. Arabs, Haitians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Filipinos, Asian Indians, and Dominicans. New essays on the Irish, Chinese, and Mexicans are provided as are revised and updated essays on the remaining groups from the first edition. The contribution to American culture by people of these diverse origins reflects differences in class, occupation, and religion. The authors explain the tensions and conflicts between American culture and the traditions of newly arrived immigrants. culture are also discussed. Essays on representative ethnic groups include African Americans, American Indians, Arabs, Asian Indians, Chinese, Dominicans, Filipinos, Germans, Haitians, Irish, Italians, Jewish, Koreans, Mexicans, Polish, Scandinavians, and the Vietnamese. Updated and expanded edition of a successful work by the same authors Includes additional ethnic groups

Andrew Jackson and those Tennesseans who, along with him, were a major force in Tennessee and American political life can best be understood by examining the political culture they all shared. The ten men studied here were the children or grandchildren of immigrants from either the Scottish lowlands or the north of Ireland. All experienced the rise from the yeoman/artisan class to that of landed gentry, and all displayed in their adult lives the influence of that move from one socioeconomic class to another. This view of Jackson and his closest friends suggests a view of these men's motives; their values, attitudes, and beliefs were somewhat different than historians have pictured for us. These Jacksonians sought to preserve the world of their fathers while changing their place in the world. They looked back but moved ahead; they were self-interested but tempered always by a selfless ideal.