New Ireland: The Place of Immigrants in American Regionalism

BLUFORD ADAMS

MOST SCHOLARS OF AMERICAN regionalism have treated it as the exclusive province of the native-born, assuming that only those born in this country could have a particular identification with, or interest in, one of its regions. Many of those scholars contend that regionalism is not merely native-born, but nativist. They read the regionalist's investment in the history, culture, and folkways of a particular place as a form of hunkering down in the presence of aliens. Some have suggested that nativism is the driving force behind all regionalist movements. Roberto Maria Dainotto suggests as much when he compares the nativism of regionalists as diverse as William Wordsworth, John Crowe Ransom, and the Basque separatists of Spain. But few go this far, with the bulk of the work focusing on the nativism of specific regional cultures. One of the regional cultures most frequently cited for its overt hostility to immigrants is Gilded Age New England. There waves of newcomers encountered a Yankee community that prided itself on its illustrious history, high ideals, and cultural accomplishments. The result was a virulent nativism that left its mark on an array of Yankee regionalist cultural productions, including fiction, travel literature, town restorations, local and regional histories, Puritan statuary, Old Home Week celebrations, and the colonial revival movement. The scholars who have studied these phenomena (they include Dona Brown, Joseph Conforti, and John Seelye) do not always agree in their conceptualizations of regionalism.3 For example, whereas some see New England regionalism as recovery project, others stress its reliance upon invented traditions. But all of them agree that nativism was a primary motivator of regionalist sentiment and expression in the period.