Review Essay: Discovering the Peoples of Michigan

Abstract

Until publication of the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, readers looking for concise and accurate information about the numerous ethnic groups residing in the state had limited resources. Their options were restricted to lengthy anecdotal volumes or short introductory reference sources from agencies like the Michigan Department of Education. These new volumes take a much different approach. The editors, Arthur W. Helweg (Western Michigan University) and Linwood H. Cousins (University of North Carolina Charlotte), helped craft a series that tells the stories of various ethnic groups in Michigan at a scholarly, yet readable level. Currendy there are seventeen volumes, with more planned. The first title in the collection Ethnicity in Michigan: Issues and People sets the stage for future volumes by introducing readers to the concept of ethnicity and describing the basic immigrant experience in Michigan. The authors, Jack Glazier and Arthur Helweg, each contribute an essay: Glazier analyzes the general study of ethnicity, and Helweg places the subject in the more specific contexts of the United States and Michigan. Glazier defines ethnicity as the distinctive cultural patterns within the pluralism of the modern nation-state (p. 3) and an ethnic group as one among several groups within a single, complex, political order (p. 3). He argues convincingly that a shared religion, history, and particularly language are important factors in nurturing an ethnic group, but he also concludes that these are not required. Glazier points to research about second-generation immigrants in the United States, a majority of whom do not speak the ethnic language but still identify with a particular ethnic group. Helweg begins by detailing anthropological evidence of early Native-American immigration to modern-day Michigan. He then creates a historical context for the settlement of both America and Michigan by describing immigration patterns of, among others, European fur traders, New England farmers, European loggers, African Americans and poor white southerners, as well as nineteenthand twentieth-century European farmers and factory workers, World War II refugees, and, most recendy, Asian professionals and Latino migrant workers. Helweg's informative essay addresses many of the reasons why people