The growing awareness of America\u27s ethnic pluralism has become one of the factors shaping modern American history. Ethnic writers, as well as ethnic leaders, began the task of illuminating the meaning of their own historic and cultural traditions within the larger contexts of the nation and of the world. They have served as interpreters of their people

Blicksilver, Edith

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Book Reviews 39 to being affected by this evil and therefore . . .  erroneous." The Western thinker used the idea of original sin to build insti­tutions that controlled "sin" and, with this mandate, imposed "goodness" by means of "civilization," "christianity," and other names that now spell group oppression. The contradiction is that "if man is evil, then there is no reason to trust or accept any judgment or interpretation by any human concerning this nature." The importance of this work 1 ies in the avant-garde approach taken by the authors to present the etiology of group oppression and the exploring of racism and sexism in depth. This work goes beyond the comfortable diagnosis of ethnocentrism as the leading cause of group oppression in Western culture. It also dissects the established social institutions of Western society, particu­larly religion and traditional philosophical thought. This exami­nation confirms the fact that Western cultural thought has supported and reinforced "paternal" domination of the non-Western world. This, in itself, would be a complete treatment of the topic, but the authors also propose solutions for change. Admit­tedly, the changes in reality would require a cultural revolution. They state, "this change must encompass but not be 1 imited to economic and social change and further, include changes in inter­personal relationships." The solutions have all been heard before and represent a rather naive approach when considering the vast degree of oppression that has just been presented. Students in the social sciences will find this work invaluable. The content is well-documented, and the authors make their position clear as they explore evidence of various forms of dom i na t ion Li 11 i e A 1 ex is Chicago State University Chicago, Illinois JOHN HIGHAM (Editor). ETHNIC LEADERSHIP IN AMERICA. (S ymposia in Comparative History, No . 9.) Ba ltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Pr ess, 1978, 214 pp., $12. 95. The growing awareness of America's ethnic pluralism has become one of the factors shaping modern American history. Ethnic writers, as well as ethnic leaders, began the task of illuminating the meaning of their own historic and cultural traditions within the larger contexts of the nation and of the world. They have served as interpreters of their people. Johns Hopkins University history professor John Higham, whose works include Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American 40 Explorations in Ethnic Studies Nativism (1955) and Send These to Me: Jews and Other Immigrants in Urban America (1975), has compiled a collection of original essays by outstanding scholars who have probed the unique charac­teristics of leadership represented by eight distinct ethnic groups. In particular, all these scholars have analyzed the rela­tions between the United States and the mother country, the status of the group in society as it attempted to combat prejudice and discrimination while it concerned itself with raising its socioeconomic level. For Nathan Glazer, who writes about American Jews, the unanimous support of Israel is evident, and the only problem remaining for this ethnic group is the survival of that small nation. The social cleavage between "uptown" and "downtown" Jews has disappeared. In the case of Japanese Americans and German Americans, a choice between the United States and the homeland gave these ethnic leaders concern. In the first case, Roger Daniels con­cludes that after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese American Citizen's League rejected the mother country and pledged unswerving loyalty to the adopted nation in spite of the relocation experience. Within the Japanese community, stress existed between alien fathers and native sons, with authority passing to the sons so that no focal point of protest survived. In the case of the German Americans, Frederick Luebke feels that the problem of homeland loyalty proved so insoluble that it resulted in the destruction of national ethnic leadership. These early leaders had been belligerent and chauvinistic. German Americans, during the first World War, suffered tragic persecu­tion. During the l920's, accommodationist leaders emerged, and the final discrediting of efforts to organize the German-American community to identify with the Nazi cause resulted in the rejec­tion of both the cause and the leaders. Thus, the attachment of the ancestral home by Japanese and by German Americans was changed by historic events. Regarding Black leadership, Nathan Huggins explores the attitudes of leaders such as Booker T. Washington, who stressed dependence upon whites because of the overpowering constrictions of the American segregationist system, while others like W. E. B. DuBois were seeking reforms. Early twentieth century Black leaders felt powerless and frustrated. More recent ones have been seeking political power through a rising number of Black mayors and congressmen with a more diverse constituency. They have become more aggressive as wel 1. The American Indian had no concern about relations between the United States and the homeland, but for Native Americans, the grief resulting in land that was torn from them was catastrophic. Efforts to organize a unified leadership have been unsuccessful Book Reviews 41 because tribal ism has fragmented authority geographically. The Native-American leaders have struggled among themselves over the distribution of their own resources. Robert F. Berkofer, Jr., concludes that frustration and distrust have not been abated over the efforts of their own leaders to either defend or to reject the "old ways." Equally diverse has been Hawaiian ethnic leadership goals. Josef J. Barton discusses southern and eastern European groups focusing upon the leaders of mutual aid organizations, of cultural societies, and of labor unions, while Robert D. Cross details the psychic personalities of Irish leaders who were fiercely loyal to their own kind while acquiring a unique talent for working with people of different backgrounds in the pragmatic operation of big organizations. Editor Higham admits that in-depth research is still needed for the style of leadership found in other American ethnic groups such as Italian Americans. Fortunately, the contributors to Ethnic Leadership in America have avoided easy solutions and sim­ple stereotyping. Instead they have penetrated beneath the sur­face of the ethnic leadership experience in search of its deepest, most challenging meanings. Hopefully, future collections will more extensively include the insights of the ethnic groups explored so that they, too, can serve as interpreters of their people. Edith Bl icksilver Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia ERNEST R. MYERS. THE COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT: INTEGRATING THEORY, EDUCATION, AND PRACTICE IN PSY­CHOLOGY, SOCIAL WORK, AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. Washington, D.C.: Un iversity Press of America, 1977, 171 pp., $8.50 pap er. Psychologists and other social scientists are critically analyzing the "state of the art" of community psychology. Their question is how this developing discipline can be best organized for pursuit of knowledge needed to bring about positive community change. Existing models are organized in several ways: community psychology--within the clinical psychology framework; community psychology--within the framework of several aspects of psychologi­cal specialties with interests in human problems; community psy­chology as an interdisciplinary profession outside of psychology altogether; and community psychology as an independent discipline. 

[Review of] John Higham (Ed.), Ethnic Leadership in America

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[Review of] John Higham (Ed.), Ethnic Leadership in America

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