In 1915, former President Theodore Roosevelt criss-crossed the country as a champion of what he called 'Americanism.' The concept was becoming commonplace in American discourse, marking a stand against what he referred to as 'hyphenated Americanism.' The persistence of such identities'German American, Italian American, Jewish American'was for Roosevelt 'the one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin,' creating a 'tangle of squabbling nationalities.' 'The foreign-born population of this country,' Roosevelt said, 'must be an Americanized population'no other kind can fight the battles of America either in war or peace.' In 1916, the writer Randolph S. Bourne offered a rejoinder in The Atlantic. In his essay, 'Trans-national America,' Bourne wondered: If Americanization on the terms that Roosevelt and others had defined failed, what of it' Should immigrants not shape their own lives as they see fit' Should they deny their own cultures and identities' To be open to this...
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