From Diversity to Unity: Southern and Appalachian Migrants in Uptown Chicago, 1950-1970

(Paperback)

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From Diversity to Unity is a community study of settlement and adaptation of Southern and Appalachian migrants to the neighborhood of Uptown Chicago. Oral histories, community newspapers, and secondary sources reveal the human experience of urban migration. Following the postwar collapse of the coal industry, Appalachian migration to northern cities increased significantly. Guy examines this migration, placing particular emphasis on the role of women in the settlement of the migrants in a new place.From Diversity to Unity fills a valuable niche in urban and Appalachian history and is ideal for scholars and students of urban and Chicago history as well as Appalachian and ethnic studies.

Reviews

An imaginative, subtle, and sensitive study of southern white migrants to Chicago after World War II. Roger Guy combines an interdisciplinary array of sources with the words of the migrants themselves to create a portait of a community and a people in the making. Guy weaves the broader story of postwar development in Chicago with the more intimate portrait of white southern migrants, a relatively neglected portion of America's Great Migrations of the twentieth century. -- David Goldfield, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Guy provides a compelling look at the experiences of southern Americans in the postwar urban North, confronting a new environment and crafting a cohesive community identity in the process. * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
Valuable for undergraduate and graduate courses on ethnicity, adaption of migrants, urban community studies, and urban politics. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. * Choice Reviews *
Guy's case study of Uptown is a useful addition to the literature on urban Appalachian and Southern migrants. -- David Walls * Contemporary Sociology *
From Diversity to Unity makes a major contribution on the histroy of southern white migration to the North. Guy is especially insightful on the experiences of female migrants as family members, workers, and community activists. -- Joseph A. Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Todd Gitlin and Nanci Hollander's Uptown: Poor Whites in Chicago (1970) announced the emergence of the white southern community in Chicago. From Diversity to Unity documents its development, maturity, and demise. * Journal Of Appalachian Studies *

Author Bio

Roger Guy is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.