Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America by Francois Weil (Hardcover, 2013)

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ISBN-13: 9780674045835, 978-0674045835. Seeking out one's ancestors was a genteel pursuit in the colonial era, when an aristocratic pedigree secured a place in the British Atlantic empire. Genealogy developed into a middle-class diversion in the young republic.

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The quest for roots has been an enduring American preoccupation. Over the centuries, generations have sketched coats of arms, embroidered family trees, established local genealogical societies, and carefully filled in the blanks in their bibles, all in pursuit of self-knowledge and status through kinship ties. This long and varied history of Americans' search for identity illuminates the story of America itself, according to Francois Weil, as fixations with social standing, racial purity, and national belonging gave way in the twentieth century to an embrace of diverse ethnicity and heritage. Seeking out one's ancestors was a genteel pursuit in the colonial era, when an aristocratic pedigree secured a place in the British Atlantic empire. Genealogy developed into a middle-class diversion in the young republic. But over the next century, knowledge of one's family background came to represent a quasi-scientific defense of elite Anglo-Saxons in a nation transformed by immigration and the emancipation of slaves. By the mid-twentieth century, when a new enthusiasm for cultural diversity took hold, the practice of tracing one's family tree had become thoroughly democratized and commercialized. Today, Ancestry.com attracts over two million members with census records and ship manifests, while popular television shows depict celebrities exploring archives and submitting to DNA testing to learn the stories of their forebears. Further advances in genetics promise new insights as Americans continue their restless pursuit of past and place in an ever-changing world.

Product Identifiers

PublisherHarvard University Press
ISBN-139780674045835
eBay Product ID (ePID)141453814

Product Key Features

SubjectHistory
Publication Year2013
Number of Pages320 Pages
Publication NameFamily Trees: a History of Genealogy in America
LanguageEnglish
TypeTextbook
AuthorFrancois Weil
FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height210 mm
Item Width140 mm

Additional Product Features

Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States
Title_AuthorFrancois Weil

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