Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America(Creating the North American Landscape)

What does it mean to be from somewhere? If most people in the United States are "from some place else" what is an American homeland? In answering these questions, the contributors to Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America offer a geographical vision of territory and the formation of discrete communities in the U.S. today. Homelands discusses groups such as the Yankees in New England, Old Order Amish in Ohio, African Americans in the plantation South, Navajos in the Southwest, Russians in California, and several other peoples and places. Homelands explores the connection of people and place by showing how aspects of several different North American groups found their niche and created a homeland. A collection of fifteen essays, Homelands is an innovative look at geographical concepts in community settings. It is also an exploration of the academic work taking place about homelands and their people, of how factors such as culture, settlement, and cartographic concepts come together in American sociology. There is much not only to study but also to celebrate about American homelands. As the editors state, "Underlying today's pluralistic society are homelands—large and small, strong and weak—that endure in some way. The mosaic of homelands to which people bonded in greater or lesser degrees, affirms in a holistic way America's diversity, its pluralistic society." The authors depict the cultural effects of immigrant settlement. The conviction that people need to participate in the life of the homeland to achieve their own self realization, within the traditions and comforts of that community. Homelands gives us a new map of the United States, a map drawn with people's lives and the land that is their home.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America Contents: Chapter 1 Free Land, Dry Land, Home Land: Richard L. Nostrand and Lawrence E. Estaville 2 The New England Yankee Homeland: Martyn J. Bowden 3 Th Pennsylvanian Homeland: Richard Pillsbury 4 Old Order Amish Homeland: Ary J. Lamme III 5 Upper Southern Ethnic and Ancestral Homelands: Michael O. Roark 6 Blacks in the Plantation South: Unique Homelands: Charles S. Aiken 7 The Creole Coast: Homeland to Substrate: Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov 8 Nouvelle Acadie The Cajun Homeland: Lawrence E. Estaville 9 La Tierra Tejana A South Texas Homeland: Daniel D. Arreola 10 The Anglo-Texan Homeland: Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov 11 The Navajo Homeland: Stephen C. Jett 12 The Kiowa Homeland in Oklahoma: Steven M. Schnell 13 The Highland-Hispano Homeland: Richard L. Nostrand 14 Mormondom's Deseret Homeland: Lowell C. "Ben" Bennion 15 California's Emerging Russian Homeland: Susan W. Hardwick 16 Homelands and Cultural Space in America in Comparative Perspective: Michael P. Conzen

About the Author :
Richard L. Nostrand is a David Ross Boyd professor of geography at the University of OklahomaLawrence E. Estaville, Jr. is professor and chair of geography at Southwest Texas State University.

Review :
No one with more than a passing interest in the human geography of the United States can afford to pass up this collection of fourteen richly informative, specially commissioned essays . . . All [of which] are lucidly written and mercifully devoid of jargon, adequetely illustrated with maps and photos, and fully documented. —Wilbur Zelinsky, Annals of the Association of American Geographers Nostrand and Estaville have assembled pieces that are both joyous to read individually and well integrated as a group. . . I recommend Homelands highly, for both general reading and use in the classroom. The uniform quality, succinctness, and broad range of the regional essays make them ideal for students. —James R. Shortridge, Historical Geography There is much to commend Homelands to anyone interested in how relationships between identity and place are constituted. —Michael J. Riley, Journal of American Ethnic History Nostrand and Estaville have compiled a collection of essays by noted geographers to illustrate the concept of 'homeland' in America. —Jim Gabbert, Chronicles of Oklahoma A welcome collection of studies of culture regions in the United States . . . This volume can add a crucial cultural-historical analysis to regional studies and courses on the American cultural landscape. —Harvey K. Flad, Geographical Review