Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups: A Socio-Historical Approach

This volume presents an alternative approach to the history of gypsies and travelling groups in Western Europe. By focusing on processes of social construction, stigmatization and categorization, the authors offer insights into the development of government policies towards itinerants in general and the ethnicization of some of these groups in particular. They analyze the western images and representations of gypsies and other itinerant groups, at the same time focusing on their functions for the labour market.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction PART 1: IMAGES AND REPRESENTATIONS Ethnicity as a Deathtrap. The History of Gypsy-Studies The Church of Knowledge. Representation of Gypsies in Encyclopedias PART 2: STIGMATIZATION AND GOVERNMENT POLICIES Eternal Vagrants? State Formation, Migration and Travelling Groups in Western Europe, 1350-1914 'Harmful Tramps'. Police Professionalization and Gypsies in Germany, 1700-1945 A Silent War: Foreign Gypsies and the Dutch Government Policy The Making of a Minority: The Case of Dutch Travellers PART 3: SOCIAL-ECONOMIC FUNCTIONING A Blind Spot: Migratory and Travelling Groups in Western European Historiography The Klink of the Hammer was heard from Daybreak till Dawn: Gypsy Occupations in Western Europe (19th-20th Centuries) Dutch Travellers: Dwellings, Origins and Occupations Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
FLORENCIA CORTÉS-CONDE Director, Communications Programme, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires DARIÉN J. DAVID Associate Professor of History, Middlebury College, Vermont GEOFFREY FISHER Geography Department, University of Derby ROSS A. GRAHAM Freelance Teacher LOUISE GUENTHER Assistant Professor of History, St John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico RONALD HARPELLE Assistant Professor of History, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario DEBORAH JAKUBS Adjunct Associate Professor of History, Perkins Library of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina PATRICK McKENNA Independent Researcher JAMES N. McELVEEN Editor, US Department of State JOHN MAYO Senior Lecturer in History, University of West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados LAURIE NOCK Anthropology Instructor, Grande Prairie Regional College, Alberta KAREN RACINE Assistant Professor of History, Valparaiso University, Indiana JIM ROSS Senior Lecturer in English and Communications, London Guildhall University BARBARA A. TENENBAUM Specialist in Mexican Culture, US Library of Congress

Review :
'Collections of essays often too broadly or too narrowly circumscribe their topic to be useful for comparative purposes, but this collection works well.' - British Bulletin of Publications