Adjusting to America

To study migration is to study transformations and transitions. Thus to study the Norwegian women that in the nineteenth and twentieth century migrated to America, is to study how they intentionally or unconsciously made adaptations and acculturated to their new homeland. Adjusting to America is a book about the Norwegian-American journal Kvinden og Hjemmet (Woman and Home) and the immigrant experience of female Norwegians as it is reflected in the pages of the journal between 1888 and 1947. The Norwegian-born editor of the journal, Ida Hansen, claimed that she wanted to help other Scandinavian immigrant women adjust to America. Thus the journal can be read as an expression of American culture and the socializing into the codes of Americanness. The interdisciplinary nature of the study makes Adjusting to America interesting for students as well as for the general reader concerned with the never-ending story of the immigrant.

Autorentext

Åse Elin Langeland has a Master's degree in English from the University of Bergen and is a member of the Research Forum for Migration and Intercultural Relations at the University of Stavanger. She is currently the Language Department Head at St. Olav Upper Secondary School in Stavanger, Norway.