A Study Of Assimilation Of German-Americans

German Americans are the biggest ethnic group in the U.S.. The history of German immigration to the U.S. traces back to nearly 400 years ago. They tended to live together and retained their language and culture, and unwilling to discard their tradition and custom. Although they had been quite successful by the end of the 19^th century, they weren't thoroughly assimilated until WWII. The thesis is to do a particular research on the assimilation of German-Americans. It starts with the German immigration history, and covers a wide range of information on German economy, culture and lives. By viewing German-Americans assimilation process and probing the reasons, the thesis reveals the main reason that German-Americans, with its distinctive characters but originated from the same ethnicity as Anglo-Saxons, actually, Germans, Anglos and Saxons all originate from German ethnicity, generally were smoothly assimilated into the main stream, known as WASP that is White Anglo-Saxon and Protestants. The thesis probes into how the U.S, assimilates the ethnic groups, especially like German-Americans. German-Americans are thought to have been assimilated in a compromising way. In all, German-Americans' assimilation process isn't very tough, and to some extent, they have retained their distinctiveness, and have also enriched the U.S. society.The thesis is divided into three parts.The preface explains the reason to study the assimilation of German-American and introduces the terms such as "German" and "ethnic group" presented during the course of the study.The author organizes the article in four chapters. Chapter one simply retrospects the immigration history of German-Americans. The history can be divided into 3 parts. The chapter explores why Germans immigrated to the U.S., and their scale and distribution, in order to present a general idea of German immigration. Chapter two discusses and evaluates German churches, societies, families and communities' efforts to retain tradition and custom, and with a focus on their role and function in preserving their culture. By running schools, publishing newspapers and books, and holding religious activities, churches of German-Americans has done well in spreading German. Activities held by German-American associations have fully embodied German tradition and culture. German-American families and communities...