Current Research

The German Minority in Interwar Poland

The German Minority in Interwar Poland by Winson Chu analyzes what happened when Germans from three different empires - the Russian, Habsburg, and German - were forced to live together in one, new state. After the First World War, German national activists made regional distinctions among these Germans and German-speakers in Poland, with preference initially for those who had once lived in the German Empire. Rather than becoming more cohesive over time, Poland's ethnic Germans remained divided and did not unite within a single representative organization. Polish repressive policies and unequal subsidies from the German state exacerbated these differences, while National Socialism created new hierarchies and unleashed bitter intra-ethnic conflict among German minority leaders. Winson Chu challenges prevailing interpretations that German nationalism in the twentieth century viewed "Germans" as a homogeneous, single group of people. His revealing study shows that nationalist agitation could divide as well as unite an embattled ethnicity. 2012. Cambridge University Press.

Is Graduate School Really for You?: The Whos, Whats, Hows, and Whys of Pursuing a Master's or Ph.D.

Is Graduate School Really for You?: The Whos, Whats, Hows, and Whys of Pursuing a Master's or Ph.D. by Amanda Seligman helps potential students navigate graduate study—not just how to get in but how to succeed once you are there and what to expect when you leave. She weighs the pros and cons of attending graduate school against achieving a sustainable work-life balance and explains the application process, the culture of graduate school, and employment prospects for academics. This informed and candid book provides anyone thinking about pursuing an advanced degree—and those who support them—with the inside scoop on what to expect in graduate school. Written in a question-and-answer format, Is Graduate School Really for You? eliminates the guesswork. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2012

Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census: From the Constitution to the American Community Survey (ACS), 2d ed.

Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census: From the Constitution to the American Community Survey (ACS), 2d ed. edited by Margo J. Anderson, Constance F. Citro and Joseph J. Salvo, updates and expands a critically-acclaimed resource to the history, politics, content, procedures, and uses of the decennial census of the American population. The new edition highlights changes in the Census Bureau's data collection and dissemination practices for the 2010 enumeration, including the use of a short-form questionnaire for the actual population count, and the release in late 2010 of the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data set based on rolling samples of the U.S. population and gathered using the long-form questionnaire. The second edition also comprehensively covers the fallout from the 2000 census and recent issues affecting the administration of the 2010 count. 2011. CQ Press.

Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora

Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora by Chia Youyee Vang documents her own migration from Laos to Minnesota at age nine and the transformations she has witnessed in Hmong communities throughout the migration and settlement processes. Vang depicts Hmong experiences in Asia and examines aspects of community building in America to reveal how new Hmong identities have been formed and how they have challenged popular assumptions about race and ethnicity in multicultural America. With an approach that intermingles the archival research of a historian, the personal experiences of a refugee, and the participant-observer perspectives of a community insider, Vang constructs a nuanced and complex portrait of the more than 130,000 Hmong people who came to the United States as political refugees beginning in the mid-1970s. She offers critiques of previous representations of the Hmong community and provides the sociological underpinnings for a bold reassessment of Hmong history in the greater context of globalization. This new understanding redefines concepts of Hmong homogeneity and characterizes ordinary Hmong migrants not as passive victims but as dynamic actors who have exercised much power over their political and social destinies. While Vang focuses on the Hmong community in the Twin Cities, she also has conducted research in numerous Hmong enclaves in the United States and abroad. 2010. University of Illinois Press.

Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760–1845

Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760–1845 by Cary Miller reexamines Ojibwe leadership practices and processes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At the end of the nineteenth century, anthropologists who had studied Ojibwe leadership practices developed theories about human societies and cultures derived from the perceived Ojibwe model. Scholars believed that the Ojibwes typified an anthropological “type” of Native society, one characterized by weak social structures and political institutions. Miller counters those assumptions by looking at the historical record and examining how leadership was distributed and enacted long before scholars arrived on the scene. Miller uses research produced by Ojibwes themselves, American and British officials, and individuals who dealt with the Ojibwes, both in official and unofficial capacities. By examining the hereditary position of leaders who served as civil authorities over land and resources and handled relations with outsiders, the warriors, and the respected religious leaders of the Midewiwin society, Miller provides an important new perspective on Ojibwe history. 2010. University of Nebraska Press.

Perspectives on Milwaukee's Past

Perspectives on Milwaukee's Past, edited by Margo Anderson and Victor Greene, offers a compelling case for the broader national significance of Milwaukee as a site of historical research. This book not only sheds light on Milwaukee's history from its pre-industrial origins through the era of deindustrialization, but also surveys shifting historiographical trends in the scholarly and popular treatment of the city's history. In this book, a diverse group of scholars explore key themes in Milwaukee's history from settlement to the present. Contributors, who include History Department members Genevieve G. McBride, Aims McGuinness, and Joseph A. Rodriguez, discuss the importance of socialism and labor in local politics; Milwaukee's ethnic diversity, including its unusually large and significant German American population; the function and origins of the city's residential architecture; and the role of religious and ethnic culture in forming the city's identity. Rich in detail, the essays also identify critical areas and methods for future investigations into Milwaukee's past. 2009. University of Illinois Press.

Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place

Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place, by Benjamin Johnson and photographer Jeffrey Gusky captures the encounter between Mexico and America through their mesmerizing portrayal of Roma, Texas. European culture left its mark here, but it was brought by mixed-race, Spanish-speaking pioneers who practiced Muslim irrigation techniques and believed that they were descended from Jews. Triumphant American armies made this region part of the United States, but the descendants of those they conquered have fought in every American conflict from the Civil War to Iraq. Racial strife divided this land, but slaves gained freedom by fleeing south to Mexico and Hispanics reacquired wealth and power by buying out Anglos. Although today the area is one of the poorest in the United States, the fortune that founded Citibank was made here and the town has inspired such authors as John Steinbeck and Larry McMurtry. In a time when the border is a source of controversy and division, Johnson’s unexpected stories and Gusky’s haunting photographs demonstrate how deeply the story of the border is also the story of America itself. 2008. Yale University Press.