Now at least 250,000 strong, the Dutch in greater Chicago have lived for 150 years "below the radar screens" of historians and the general public. Here their story is told for the first time. In Dutch Chicago Robert Swierenga offers a colorful, comprehensive history of the Dutch Americans who have made their home in the Windy City since the mid-1800s. The original Chicago Dutch were a polyglot lot from all social strata, regions, and religions of the Netherlands. Three-quarters were Calvinists; the rest included ...
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Now at least 250,000 strong, the Dutch in greater Chicago have lived for 150 years "below the radar screens" of historians and the general public. Here their story is told for the first time. In Dutch Chicago Robert Swierenga offers a colorful, comprehensive history of the Dutch Americans who have made their home in the Windy City since the mid-1800s. The original Chicago Dutch were a polyglot lot from all social strata, regions, and religions of the Netherlands. Three-quarters were Calvinists; the rest included Catholics, Lutherans, Unitarians, Socialists, Jews, and the nominally churched. Whereas these latter Dutch groups assimilated into the American culture around them, the Dutch Reformed settled into a few distinct enclaves -- the Old West Side, Englewood, and Roseland and South Holland -- where they stuck together, building an institutional infrastructure of churches, schools, societies, and shops that enabled them to live from cradle to grave within their own communities. Focusing largely but not exclusively on the Reformed group of Dutch folks in Chicago, Swierenga recounts how their strong entrepreneurial spirit and isolationist streak played out over time. Mostly of rural origins in the northern Netherlands, these Hollanders in Chicago liked to work with horses and go into business for themselves. Picking up ashes and garbage, jobs that Americans despised, spelled opportunity for the Dutch, and they came to monopolize the garbage industry. Their independence in business reflected the privacy they craved in their religious and educational life. Church services held in the Dutch language kept outsiders at bay, as did a comprehensive system of private elementary and secondary schools intended to inculcate youngsters with the Dutch Reformed theological and cultural heritage. Not until the world wars did the forces of Americanization finally break down the walls, and the Dutch passed into the mainstream. Only in their churches today, now entirely English speaking, does the Dutch cultural memory still linger. Dutch Chicago is the first serious work on its subject, and it promises to be the definitive history. Swierenga's lively narrative, replete with historical detail and anecdotes, is accompanied by more than 250 photographs and illustrations. Valuable appendixes list Dutch-owned garbage and cartage companies in greater Chicago since 1880 as well as Reformed churches and schools. This book will be enjoyed by readers with Dutch roots as well as by anyone interested in America's rich ethnic diversity.
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Add this copy of Dutch Chicago: a History of the Hollanders in the Windy to cart. $17.54, good condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Add this copy of Dutch Chicago a History of the Hollanders in the Windy to cart. $40.00, like new condition, Sold by McCormick Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hartland, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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Fine in Fine dust jacket. 0802813119. "...a colorful, comprehensive history of the Dutch Americans who have made their home in the Windy City since the mid-1800s."; MCN32781; 8vo 8"-9" tall; 908 pp.
Add this copy of Dutch Chicago: a History of the Hollanders in the Windy to cart. $43.00, very good condition, Sold by Cardinalis Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from London, ON, CANADA, published 2002 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co..
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Very Good in Near Fine jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾-9¾" tall. Orange hard covers, in dust jacket. Light wear to edges of boards. Stamp to front free endpaper. Small piece of tape reinforces head of dust jacket's spine, on reverse. Otherwise clean, tight, and completely unmarked. A sound and handsome copy, very neat.
Add this copy of Dutch Chicago: a History of the Hollanders in the Windy to cart. $56.69, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Add this copy of Dutch Chicago: a History of the Hollanders in the Windy to cart. $100.61, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
