European History Commons^™

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 …

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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

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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 …

Carl Theodor Dreyer' S Response To Anti-Semitism In His Unfilmed Jesus Film Scenario, Peter G. Christensen

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The controversy in 2004 over possible anti-Semitism in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ had precedents in earlier Jesus-films. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to Matthew and Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth have also been accused of anti-Semitism. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) wanted to combat anti-Semitism, as he directly stated in his own essays attached to his Jesus screenplay, which since his death has been published in English, Danish, and French versions. Dreyer began the film project in 1949-1950 in Independence, Missouri, writing in English, and he worked on it until the end of his life. However, he …

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Nineteenth-Century Emigration From Sollerod, A Rural Township In North Zealand (Sjaelland), Niels Peter Stilling

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In 1985, Erik Helmer Pedersen wrote that "the history of Danish emigration to America can be seen, in very broad terms, as the story of how a small part of the population tore itself away from the national community in order to build a new existence in foreign lands. Those who write the history of the emigrants must, on the one hand, see them as a minority in relation to the Danish whole, and, on the other hand, must reconstruct that little part of the history of American immigration which concerns the Danes."

This article attempts to do just that …

Captain S. S. Heller And The First Organized Danish Migration To Canada, Erik John Nielsen Lang

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The first, largest, and only organized migration of Danish settlers to Canada in the 19th century was directed to the settlement of New Denmark in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The active recruitment of Danish migrants was a shift of focus for the provincial government, which had before relied almost exclusively on British settlers. Established in 1872, New Denmark's location placed it amongst the traditional ethnic groups of Victoria County: French-Canadian, English, Scottish, and Irish. Danes would not have chosen to migrate to the province at all had it not been for a Danish emigration promoter whose life, motivations, …

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Conference Opening Remarks, Lene Balleby

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When I first heard about this year's conference, it was being launched as a celebration and recognition of two of Denmark's most famous sons: Hans Christian Andersen and Soren Kirkegaard. But looking at the extensive program for the upcoming days, it is clear that this program is also meant to present a much wider picture of the richness and scope of Danish culture and that it will indeed live up to its title: "Danish Culture, Past and Present."

Picturing Karen Blixen--Artist, Charlatan, Heretic, And Iconoclast: European Storyteller In The American Marketplace, Marianne Stecher-Hansen

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In one of her stories, published in 1942 at a midpoint in her literary career, Karen Blixen addresses the difficult relationship of the artist to the public:

All human relationships have in them something monstrous and cruel. But the relation of the artist to the public is amongst the most monstrous. Yes, it is as terrible as marriage. (Winter's Tales 291)

Matie's Dagbog [Matie' S Diary], Matie Eliva Petersen-Larsen

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Matie begins her diary, "I think I will begin a diary of this my most exciting year, so I will not forget a small thing. But for now I must hurry to my stateroom and pack my luggage." That was September 7, 1900, on a ship headed for Cuxhaven, Germany, her ultimate destination being the island of Als, Denmark, where her father's relatives lived. Matie had been given this year-long trip as a gift from her parents for helping to raise her eight brothers and sisters, younger than she, and for teaching them to read and write English, as Danish …