Homesickness: An American HistoryHomesickness today is dismissed as a sign of immaturity, what children feel at summer camp, but in the nineteenth century it was recognized as a powerful emotion. When gold miners in California heard the tune "Home, Sweet Home," they sobbed. When Civil War soldiers became homesick, army doctors sent them home, lest they die. Such images don't fit with our national mythology, which celebrates the restless individualism of colonists, explorers, pioneers, soldiers, and immigrants who supposedly left home and never looked back. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological studies, this wide-ranging book uncovers the profound pain felt by Americans on the move from the country's founding until the present day. Susan Matt shows how colonists in Jamestown longed for and often returned to England, African Americans during the Great Migration yearned for their Southern homes, and immigrants nursed memories of Sicily and Guadalajara and, even after years in America, frequently traveled home. These iconic symbols of the undaunted, forward-looking American spirit were often homesick, hesitant, and reluctant voyagers. National ideology and modern psychology obscure this truth, portraying movement as easy, but in fact Americans had to learn how to leave home, learn to be individualists. Even today, in a global society that prizes movement and that condemns homesickness as a childish emotion, colleges counsel young adults and their families on how to manage the transition away from home, suburbanites pine for their old neighborhoods, and companies take seriously the emotional toll borne by relocated executives and road warriors. In the age of helicopter parents and boomerang kids, and the new social networks that sustain connections across the miles, Americans continue to assert the significance of home ties. By highlighting how Americans reacted to moving farther and farther from their roots, Homesickness: An American History revises long-held assumptions about home, mobility, and our national identity. |
Contents
Painful Lessons in Individualism | |
A House Divided | |
Breaking Home Ties | |
Immigrants and the Dream of Return | |
Other editions - View all
Homesickness: An American History Presidential Distinguished Professor of History Susan J Matt,Susan J. Matt No preview available - 2014 |
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African Americans army Beinecke Rare Book believed Black boys Breaking Home Ties California California Song camp Carolina Chicago City Civil colonial colonists comfort condition culture dear Diary early Emigration emotional England ethnic Family Papers feelings felt folder friends go home helicopter parents History homelands homesickness hometown hope immigrants Indian individuals interviewed Irasema Rivera Italian John Journal leave home Letters living longing for home Medical Mexican migration military mobility modern mother moved Native Americans native land Nayarit neighborhood never newspaper North nostalgia nostalgic offered Old Home one’s organizations parents Paul Schuster Taylor percent quoted refugees relocation reported return home reunion sense sister slaves social society soldiers songs South South Carolina southern stay Tepic town Union Army United University Press urban Vietnam Villa Hidalgo Virginia Virginia Gazette wife William women World World War II wrote yearnings York young