Ethnicity and War
Ethnicity and War.Throughout American history, war has often had a strong Americanizing influence on ethnic groups, increasing each group's acceptability and promoting assimilation and acculturation. Support for the war effort by the ethnic group itself has been well received by the majority. But assimilation and acculturation usually mean the erosion of the cultural and social life of the immigrant group. In addition, during wartime, pressures to conform have often become oppressive, and discrimination against immigrants—and sometimes ethnic groups—from countries with which the United States is at war has at times been appalling.
Although non‐English immigrants to America during the eighteenth century helped legitimize the ideal of a composite national identity, in the succeeding century pressures for cultural conformity increased, partly as a result of America's wars. The greatest pressures on cultural diversity occurred in the late nineteenth...
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