From the ritual mutilation of his name at the beginning of each school year to the overwhelming difficulty and anxiety of dating Book Reviews 171 within the rigid social structure of the Greek community, we personally experience the complexity of living in two separate but integrated worlds. 12), the chapters discussing his educational and dating experiences brilhandy illustrate how he was trapped in a uniquely Greek American reality. Although he "never thought of himself as being anything other than American" (p. Georgakas's work is most successful in identifying how the community coped with change and cultural insecurity in the everyday lives of its residents.
More important, however, was the hybridization fashioned by a new individually imagined and articulated Greek identity. 11) was central to the formation of community identity as mid-twentieth-century urban modernity conflicted with traditional nineteenth-century Greek village hfe, creating an amalgamated reality that changed conventional family structure forever. Throughout the book, we witness how change, both "desired and not desired, anticipated and unforeseen" (p.
From his father's pub, the Sportsman's Bar on Jefferson Avenue, to the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church on Beniteau that was the spiritual and cultural center of the community, Georgakas reveals how Old World values dominated the Greek American mindset and how neighborhood structures served as a bastion against change during a time of insecure prosperity. 52) that dominated Monroe, Beaubien, and St.
Gracefully navigating through a multifarious landscape, the author guides us from his "hfe changing" visit to his father's native village of Sidirokastro to the coffee shops or "kafenia" (p. In My Detroit: Growing Up Greek andAmerican inMotor City, labor historian Dan Georgakas weaves together an engaging and vivid tale of ethnic hfe on Detroit's east side during the city's industrial zenith?the "Golden Age" for immigrants (p. My Detroit: Growing Up Greek andAmerican in Motor City.
Despite these shortcomings, Among the Sturdy Pioneers is a useful addition to the growing catalog of literature that seeks to more fully integrate the history of northern Michigan communities into the larger history of the state. A more complete index would also be helpful. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ġ70 Michigan Historical Review some historic and contemporary maps.
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