Recommended Books on Ethnic Geography

Berry, Kate A., and Martha L. Henderson (eds.). 2002. Geographical Identities of Ethnic America: Race, Space, and Place. Reno: University of Nevada Press. Eighteen different experts give their views on American ethnic geography, explaining how place shapes ethnic and racial identities and, in turn, how these groups create distinctive spatial patterns and ethnic landscapes.

Jordan, Terry G., and Matti E. Kaups. 1989. The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethnic and Ecological Interpretation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. The authors use the concepts of cultural preadaptation and ethnic substrate to reveal how the forest colonization culture of the American eastern woodlands developed and helped shape half a continent.

McKee, Jesse O. (ed.). 2000. Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield. This clear and thoughtful text offers a geographical analysis of U.S. immigration patterns and the development of selected ethnic minority groups, focusing especially on their origin, diffusion, socioeconomic characteristics, and settlement patterns within the United States; many well-known geographers contributed chapters.

Miyares, Ines M., and Christopher A. Airriess. 2007. Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America. Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield. An edited collection featuring chapters authored by renowned contemporary ethnic geographers on a variety of topics ranging from Central American soccer leagues to Muslim immigrants from Lebanon and Iran; also includes a geographer’s view of ethnic festivals, with which we began this chapter.

Nostrand, Richard L., and Lawrence E. Estaville, Jr. (eds.). 2001. Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place Across America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. A collection of essays on an array of North American ethnic homelands, together with in-depth treatment of the geographical concept of homeland.

Rehder, John B. 2004. Appalachian Folkways. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. An exploration of the folk culture of the Appalachian region of the United States, including its distinctive settlement history, folk architecture, cuisine, speech, and belief systems.

Schein, Richard (ed.). 2006. Landscape and Race in the United States. London and New York: Routledge. Contributions by leading geographers studying the cultural geographies of race provide an updated and critical insight into this growing subfield.