Description

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Spanning more than 100 years of Swedish American local history in the Midwest and the West, Jennifer Eastman Attebery’s thorough examination of nearly 300 historical legends explores how Swedish Americans employ these narratives in creating, debating, and maintaining group identity. She demonstrates that historical legends can help us better understand how immigrant groups in general, and Swedish Americans in particular, construct and perpetuate a sense of ethnicity as broader notions of nationality, race, and heritage shift over time. 

The legends Swedish Americans tell about their past are both similar to and distinct from those of others who migrated westward; they participated in settler colonialism while maintaining a sense of their specific, Swedish ethnicity. Unlike racial minority groups, Swedish Americans could claim membership in a majority white community without abandoning their cultural heritage. Their legends and local histories reflect that positioning. Attebery reveals how Swedish American legends are embedded within local history writing, how ostension and rhetoric operate in historical legends, and how vernacular local history writing works in tandem with historical legends to create a common message about a communal past. This impeccably researched study points to ways in which legends about the past possess qualities unique to their subgenre yet can also operate similarly to contemporary legends in their social impact.

About the Author

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A study of identity construction through historical legend

Praise For…

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“Arguing convincingly that historical legends are fundamental components of a selective, often self-congratulatory, ‘useable past,’ Attebery reminds us that these stories buttress inarguably contemporary heritage claims. An original contribution to a neglected, important topic.”—James P. Leary, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“A sophisticated and sharp-eyed take on the vexed and complicated presentation of heritage, story, and community in Swedish American local history writing. Illuminating the ongoing political importance of historical legends, Attebery deftly analyzes their patterns and omissions in a way that is profoundly needed in an America too often marked by the erasure of the experiences of its BIPOC citizens.”—Jeanne Banks Thomas, Utah State University