From Peasants to Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle West

Description

This book examines a trans-Atlantic chain migration from a Norwegian fjord district to settlements in the nineteenth-century rural Upper Middle West and considers the social and economic conditions experienced in Europe as well as the immigrants' cultural adaptations to America.

'Gjerde delivers a well-conceived, clearly formulated, and thoroughly researched scholarly investigation. This book is an important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the translantic cultural impulses produced by the mass migration of the last century.' American Historical Review 'Jon Gjerde has given us a book marked by careful writing and skillful research.' Reviews in American History 'One of the finest treatments available of the movement of people from rural Europe to rural America.' Journal of Interdisciplinary History 'Gjerde's book is marked throughout by clarity of thought and expression. Written for scholars, it remains accessible to interested lay readers ... Never constricted by assumptions about the primacy of economic variables, Gjerde accords due weight to ethnocultural and religious variables. The result is a model study, based on hard evidence, of how the dialectic between culture and environment can illuminate social history.' Minnesota History 'This book is of great interest and is an impressive achievement.' Economic History Review 'He has carried out a distinguished analysis of demographic, economic, and cultural conditions in Balestrand, an analysis that shows that he has a command of important materials of different kinds.' Historisk Tidsskrift (Oslo)