THE ETHNIC DIMENSION

Until fairly recently there was a surprising dearth of ethnic historical studies, and although that is no longer the case, there is still much scope for investigation of ethnic aspects of community history – especially in the ethnic dimension of the social structure of communities and the experience of immigrant and ethnic groups in work, politics, religion, family life, and social matters like housing and poverty. Some reference to source material for the ethnic element in politics, religion, economic matters, and welfare may be found in chapters 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11.

A considerable body of recent secondary work is available to provide background material on, for example, federal immigration policies, and on the history of specific ethnic groups, and some work has been undertaken on local aspects of ethnicity and on immigrants in cities generally and in certain large cities in particular. In addition, various institutions have acquired important collections of material relating to immigrants and ethnic matters. Among these are research centers and historical societies devoted to the study of such topics.

Some of the records described in the last chapter are particularly useful for investigating the size and characteristics of ethnic groups in local communities. Fiscal and business records, in particular, shed light on levels of prosperity, while from census materials statistical evidence on the numerical strength of different groups may be obtained, together with data on family and household structures, relative age-structures, property-holding, and on occupational and residential concentrations, and so on.