Electronic Thesis/Dissertation
Gone to Texas: Eastern-European Jewish and Italian Immigrants in Urban Texas, 1900-1924 Open Access
This dissertation offers a close examination of the East European Jewish and Italian immigrant populations of three Texas cities--Dallas, Galveston, and Houston--at the turn of the century. Using statistical data derived from the 1900 and 1920 United States federal manuscript censuses, as well as information gathered from a variety of sources including newspapers, census directories, and religious organization records, it weaves together a narrative of the immigrant experience of two populations that receive little scholarly attention in studies of Texas history. Much of the history of southern and eastern European immigrants has been placed in the large immigrant centers of the north and northeastern United States. Despite the relatively small size of the East European Jewish and Italian immigrant populations in Texas' cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these two groups helped shape the economic and cultural landscape of three of the state's largest urban areas. Through a comparison with East European Jewish and Italian immigrants in other major U.S. cities, it is apparent that the immigrants who settled in Texas cities were not particularly unique in terms of gender distribution, marital status, literacy, or ability to speak English. They were, however, far more likely to be involved in low status white-collar occupations, notably as small business owners. Immigrants in these positions, unlike those working as wage laborers in the employ of another, achieved some level of independence.
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Bondurant_gwu_0075A_11368.pdf | 2018-01-16 | Open Access |
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