The United States has long been described as a nation of immigrants; but it is also a nation of religions in which Muslims and Methodists; Buddhists and Baptists live and work side by side. This book explores that nation of religions; focusing on how four recently arrived religious communities--Muslims; Buddhists; Hindus; and Sikhs--are shaping and; in turn; shaped by American values.For a generation; scholars have been documenting how the landmark legislation that loosened immigration restrictions in 1965 catalyzed the development of the United States as "a nation of Buddhists; Confucianists; and Taoists; as well as Christians;" as Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark put it. The contributors to this volume take U.S. religious diversity not as a proposition to be proved but as the truism it has become. Essays address not whether the United States is a Christian or a multireligious nation--clearly; it is both--but how religious diversity is changing the public values; rites; and institutions of the nation and how those values; rites; and institutions are affecting religions centuries old yet relatively new in America. This conversation makes an important contribution to the intensifying public debate about the appropriate role of religion in American politics and society.Contributors:Ihsan Bagby; University of Kentucky Courtney Bender; Columbia UniversityStephen Dawson; Forest; VirginiaDavid Franz; University of VirginiaHien Duc Do; San Jose State UniversityJames Davison Hunter; University of VirginiaPrema A. Kurien; Syracuse UniversityGurinder Singh Mann; University of California; Santa BarbaraVasudha Narayanan; University of FloridaStephen Prothero; Boston UniversityOmid Safi; Colgate UniversityJennifer Snow; Pasadena; CaliforniaRobert A. F. Thurman; Columbia UniversityR. Stephen Warner; University of Illinois at ChicagoDuncan Ryuken Williams; University of California; Berkeley
#1720218 in Books The University of North Carolina Press 2000-05-29 2000-05-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.28 x .81 x 6.16l; 1.00 #File Name: 080784845X320 pages
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Philadelphia: Microcosm of AmericaBy CustomerJ. Matthew Gallman; in Receiving Erin's Children; analyzes how two demographically similar cities; Liverpool; England; and Philadelphia; Pennsylvania; during the 1840s and 1850s handled the large influx of refuges from the Irish potato famine. Purporting to discuss immigration issues; the book is more a social study of how different cultures responded to similar rising urban problems such as poverty and crime. Both Liverpool and Philadelphia were ports with growing populations. "Poverty; sanitation; housing; disease; sectarian and ethnic conflict; crime and policing; education and delinquency...had been ongoing subjects of public debate in both cities." (pp. 211-12) Gallman found that the resolution of these issues depended upon the "material conditions; dominant ideologies; and the magnitude of the migration in each port." (p. 212) England with its small land mass and large population took a broader more public view of handling social issues. The poor were numerous and encroaching upon the middle and upper classes. Although the poor provided a useful labor force for the cities; their issues were becoming common issues which needed a centralized governmental response. On the other extreme; the United States had a large land mass with most of its population living along its eastern coast. The poor had the opportunity to improve their condition by moving westward. Social problems such as sanitation and crime were viewed as local problems that could be obviated by inducing the poor to move elsewhere. The concept of the frontier was distinctly American and colored the American responses to many social issues. In England; there had evolved an acceptance of a hierarchy. The government was expected to act on behalf of its citizenry. Whereas; the United States had a strong cultural commitment to voluntarism. There was; and continues to be; a common distrust of centralized bureaucracies and of decisions being made in a hierarchical fashion. The United States; and Philadelphia in particular; consisted of numerous philanthropic societies and benevolent institutions that handled in their own ways with little oversight the problems that they found and chose to handle. The United States had little use for a federal form of internal government at this time. Although England had a large immigrant population from Ireland; it did not have the diversity of the United States which was already a melting pot of European and African cultures. The Irish were considered to be outsiders by the English but there was no intention of making them conform to "English" ways. The Irish had always been neighbors living in close proximity to England; their culture was not unknown to the English-their culture was not a threat. The opposite was true in the United States. Immigrants were outsiders but because they all came from far away; their cultures were strange and threatening. There grew an impulse amongst Americans to acculturate immigrants quickly. The Irish also arrived a rung up on the social ladder; with Africans remaining on the bottom rung. This immediate movement upward was also threatening. Traditional animosities between nations continued as a microcosm in the new world. "The crux of this study has been a comparison of choices-as they were made at roughly the same time in two different cities." (p. 224) The methods developed to deal with emerging social issues reflected how the two nations had handled social issues in the past. There was not yet a need to reinvent a new social construct. The English continued to rule and solve problems from the top down and the United States; though growing more democratic; continued to view its issues locally.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Nancy ReebGreat
