Patriotic Pluralism

“Drawing on extensive collections of foreign language newspapers, Mirel offers a refreshing, persuasive reinterpretation of efforts to Americanize European immigrants during the first half of the 20th century… This volume represents a major contribution to the history of U.S. education, and will be of interest to students of immigration, American identity, and the origins of later 20th-century multiculturalism.”—A.D. Mullen, Choice

“Patriotic Pluralism shows that Americanization through education helped transform white immigrants from southern and central Europe into citizens—partly because the immigrant communities used their newspapers, churches, synagogues, and their own schools, to change America’s image of itself. America became a nation of immigrants, dedicated to the ideals of inclusion and democracy, as it faced twentieth century totalitarianism abroad. It’s an impressive book and a wonderfully told story.”—William Reese, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“This is a bold, intriguing, and timely book—the first truly novel interpretation of Americanization in the past two or three decades. It provides the only reliable account of adult education for immigrants and takes the story all the way up to the Second World War. Most impressively, it puts immigrants themselves at the heart of the narrative. Newcomers to America emerge from these pages not as passive victims, but as actors—indeed, as Americanizers—in their own right.”—Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University