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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Minnesota Press
ISBN-100816647674
ISBN-139780816647675
eBay Product ID (ePID)57101502
Product Key Features
Number of Pages320 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication NameUp in the Rocky Mountains : Writing the Swedish Immigrant Experience
Publication Year2007
SubjectUnited States / State & Local / West (Ak, CA, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, WY), Emigration & Immigration, Sociology / General, Europe / Scandinavia, Folklore & Mythology
TypeTextbook
AuthorJennifer Eastman Attebery
Subject AreaSocial Science, History
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1 in
Item Weight23.5 Oz
Item Length9 in
Item Width5.9 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional
LCCN2007-007489
Dewey Edition22
IllustratedYes
Dewey Decimal978/.004397
SynopsisBefore the turn of the twentieth century, many Swedish men emigrated to the American Rockies as itinerant laborers, drawn by the region's developing industries. Single Swedish women ventured west, too, and whole families migrated, settling into farm communities. By 1920, one-fifth of all Swedish immigrants were living in the West. In Up in the Rocky Mountains, Jennifer Eastman Attebery offers a new perspective on Swedish immigrants' experiences in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico from 1880 to 1917 by interpreting their letters home. Considering more than three hundred letters, Attebery analyzes their storytelling, repetitive language, traditional phrasing, and metaphoric images. Recognizing the letters' power as a folk form, Attebery sees in them the writers' relationships back in Sweden as well as their encounters with religious and labor movements, regionalism, and nationalism in their new country. By defining personal letters as a vernacular genre, Attebery provides a model for discerning immigrants' shared culture in correspondence collections. By studying their words, she brings to life small Swedish communities throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Jennifer Eastman Attebery is professor of English and director of American studies at Idaho State University.