European History Commons^™

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American Images Of Denmark During The Cold War, Anders Kristian Baerholm Frikke

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The study of the past is essential for our understanding of the present day. In other words, if you want to know something about your own time, a good place to start is to study the previous historical events.

Not For The King, But For God And Country: Scandinavians And Ethnic Identity During The American Civil War, Anders Rasmussen

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The history of the United States is essentially a history of immigration. From the Spanish arrival in Florida in 1565 to present-day America, immigration has been a continuous factor in the history of the United States, and it has repeatedly challenged notions of what it means to be American. Among the many immigrant groups which came to the United States were the Scandinavians. The Civil War between 1861 and 1865 forced these newly arrived immigrants to make important decisions in regards to ethnicity, politics and nationality. This article explores the Scandinavian Civil War experience through the prism of ethnicity and …

Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Reading The Fairytales Of Hans Christian Andersen And The Novels Of Horatio Alger As Proto-Entrepreneurial Narrative Or A True Story Of Two Boys Who Grew Up To Write Stories Which Shaped The Entrepreneurial Attitude Of Their Nations!, Robert Smith, Helle Neergaard

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We believe that these two very different fairytales are a fitting introduction to the first part of this two part exploration by the authors into Danish and Danish-American Enterprise Culture. This is because they capture the spirit of their respective nations as it stood in 19th Century Denmark and America. The idea for the article flourished from an email conversation, between the authors Helle Neergaard and Robert Smith in late December 2005. The basis of the conversation was that with the year 2005 being the 200th anniversary of the birth of Denmark's favourite son Hans Christian Andersen it would be …

The Practical And The Sentimental: The Artifact Collection Of The Danish Immigrant Museum, Angela Stanford

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Many of the things immigrants brought from Denmark were of practical value to them as travelers building new lives across the ocean. Trunks, blankets, tools, and clothes were obvious choices for anyone moving from one place to another. Photographs, knickknacks, toys, and other like items may not have been as practical, but held sentimental value by reminding them of the homes, families, and friends they were leaving behind.

Urban Danish Foodways And Ethnic Marketing Strategies In Bien, 1900-1950, Catrine Kyster Christensen Giery

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Food culture is an integral part of popular culture. Fabio Parasecoli defines popular culture as “the totality of ideas, values, embodied experiences, representations, material items, practices, social relations, organizations, and institutions that are conceived, produced, experienced, and reciprocally connected within environments influenced by markets and consumption, with or without the specific economic goal of reaping a profit.” When food culture appears in the semi-public sphere—for example, in grocery stores, restaurants, bars, butcher stores, and bakeries, it demarcates a space where the desires and strategies of businessmen and consumers meet. Consumers want the products they need at an affordable price, and …

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Immigrant Utopias, Thorvald Hansen

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Europe was in ferment during the nineteenth century. The American Revolution and the French Revolution, both of which had taken place during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, had brought to the fore new questions as to the status of the individual in society. The emphasis in the one on the equality of all men, and in the other on "Liberty, equality and fraternity," had inspired and given hope to some, but had struck fear into the hearts of others. It was inevitable that this should give rise to reformers, particularly in England and France, reformers who were concerned …

Reviews

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The Nordic Sagas provide the background and basis for this novel about three women-Katla, a "thrall" (slave) who is the daughter of an Irish Christian woman captured by Viking Raiders along the Irish Coast before Katla was born, Bibrau, Katla's daughter, who is conceived after a brutal sexual assault, and Thorbjorg, who is a seeress and healer to the Viking settlement in Greenland and a faithful servant to the Nordic God, Odin. Fate brings these three women together and the story is told through their thoughts and feelings about each other, the events which bring them together, life in the …

Reviews

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In the days of "horse culture," farmers needed to have a market town every six to twelve miles in order to get there and back in one day. Towns sprang up like mushrooms as agricultural settlement sped across the Middle West in the half-century 1830-80. Some became county seats, and one of these was Benson, Minnesota.

Back Cover

The Bridge

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Back Cover

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Autobiographical Constructions Of Danish American Identity Between The World Wars, Julie K. Allen

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One of the most emotionally charged issues related to American immigration, past and present is the question of how quickly and completely immigrants should be expected to assimilate into mainstream American culture. Throughout the nineteenth century, the prevailing attitude in America was that assimilation of immigrants would happen naturally and gradually, but the first decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of nativism and a much more aggressive approach to the Americanization of immigrants.1 While these trends peaked during World War I, their reverberations continued to impact immigrant groups throughout America throughout the decades preceding World War II. One …

Becoming American - According To The Jorgensens, Torben Tvorup Christensen

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For those who have waited a long time for this article about integration among Danish-American immigrants I can only say that I am sorry. Lack of time has kept me away from my Danish-English dictionary and thus prevented me from writing a more public friendly version of my Masters Thesis. Knowing how difficult it would be to convert more than a hundred pages into a few readable lines-I guess-is the real reason why I have not undertaken this task before now. Another reason is simply that I each time I began thinking about doing something I was being overwhelmed by …

Denmark's Forgotten Film Star: Karl Dane, Laura Petersen Balogh

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"Slim of 'Big Parade' Dead Amid Poverty," "Riches to Rags," and "Actor Who Once Made $1500 a Week Saved From Pauper's Grave." These were some of the headlines that appeared in American newspapers in April 1934 after the suicide of Copenhagen-born silent film star Karl Dane.

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The Global Dane: Writing Soren Kierkegaard's Biography*, Joakim Garff

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When Professor C.K.F. Molbech was asked the year after Kierkegaard's death to sketch a biographical portrait for a planned German translation of Either/Or, he went to his friend, the philosopher Hans Brochner, for advice and suggestions. Brochner, who knew the deceased personally, pondered it and then replied: When one restricts oneself to external events, there is of course very little to say about his life at all: he was born May 5, 1813, he was a student at the University in 1830, took his degree in theology in 1840, he submitted his doctoral thesis in 1841, and he died in …

Front Cover

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Editorial Statement

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Contributors

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Contents

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Sources

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Abraham Van Buskirk: United Empire Loyalist Opposed To The American War For Independence, Rolf Buschardt Christensen

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In 1983 when Canada celebrated the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Loyalists-the refugees from the American Revolution-the Canadian media reported that among the Loyalists was Abraham Van Buskirk, who was of Danish origin. That's all the media said about him; the point being that not all Loyalists were of English background. Here's his story-and the historical background, which shaped his life.

What Can We Learn From Danish Farmers?, Palle Pedersen

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During the past 100 years, Danish agriculture has developed its position and ability to compete on international markets. Since Denmark joined the European Economic Community in 1973, productivity in Danish agriculture has increased considerably; and, with a food production sufficient for 15 million people and a population of only 5.2 million, Denmark exports two-thirds of it agricultural production to more than 180 countries. Overall, Denmark is the largest food exporter in the world relative to its population.1

N.F.S. Grundtvig's Approach To Christian Community And Civic Responsibility, Mark C. Mattes

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A perennial concern of Christian social ethics is the attempt to discern the best paradigm for relating the Christian faith and life to wider culture. H. Richard Niebuhr's typology1 of how Christ relates to culture, i. e., "Christ against culture" (sectarian), "Christ above culture" (Roman Catholic), "Christ transforming culture" (Reformed), "Christ of culture" (liberal Protestant), and "Christ and culture in paradox" (Lutheran) continues to provide a helpful framework in which to understand the role of the Christian ethos in public life. One important interpretation of this latter type, "Christ and culture in paradox" is that of the nineteenth century Danish …

Grundtvig' S Relevance Today: The Current Debate, Henrik Wiegh Poulsen

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Hardly any individual has meant more to Denmark and the Danes than Grundtvig. But lately he has suffered a fall from grace in public opinion. Why is this and what does it mean to Grundtvig and to Danish society?

A Tale Of Two Geniuses--With Opposing Views Of Tales--And An Ingenious Critic Of Both: H.C. Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, And Georg Brandes, Poul Houe

The Bridge

The year 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth and the 150th anniversary of Soren Kierkegaard's death. Kierkegaard's critique of Andersen as a novelist was merciless, and Andersen's relation to Kierkegaard the man and the thinker was not easygoing either. Both of these towering nineteenth century Golden Age Danes were first portrayed in a big way by the same Danish critic, Georg Brandes, himself a pivotal figure in nineteenth century European criticism. I thought it appropriate, therefore, to focus my paper on Andersen, Kierkegaard, and Brandes as three cornerstones of nineteenth century Danish culture.

The Reception Of Danish Science Fiction In The United States, Kristine J. Anderson

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Science fiction is a distinctly American genre. Although scholars have traced its origins back as far as the Latin writer Lucian of Samosata,1 it was Hugo Gernsback, a publisher of pulp magazines in the United States, who first gave the genre its name in the June 1929 issue of Wonder Stories. Gernsback had been serializing the scientific romances of such writers as Jules Verne and HG. Wells, emphasizing their treatment of technology and putting them forth as models for other budding writers to imitate. The magazines that Gernsback initiated became very popular, spawning more from other publishers. Groups of aficionados …

Enok Mortensen And The Immigrant Experience: A View From The Lower Class, Rudolf Jensen

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To begin with, I would like to cite several short quotations from Enok Mortensen's fiction to show his primary themes as well as his writing style.

...for jer Emigranter er der aldrig noget, der er saa godt som det var i Danmark...altid skal I sammenligne...1 [for you immigrants there is never anything as good as it was in Denmark...you always have to compare.]

...herover gik man med en underlig Uro i Sindet altid...bare et hundrede Dollars mere, eller Tusinde...eller Millionen...2 [over here in America you are always restless...only a hundred dollars more, or a thousand, or a million.]

...I det …