Homesickness [[electronic resource] ] : an American history / / Susan J. Matt

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910461069503321
• Autore: Matt Susan J (Susan Jipson), <1967->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Oxford University Press, c2011
• ISBN: 1-280-59286-9; 9786613622693; 0-19-970744-8
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (356 p.)
• Disciplina: 155.9/2
• Soggetti: Nostalgia - History; Homesickness - History; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction -- Emotions in early America -- Painful lessons in individualism -- A house divided -- Breaking home ties -- Immigrants and the dream of return -- Transferring loyalties -- Mama's boys, organization men, boomerang kids, and the surprising persistence of the extended family -- Conclusion. Of helicopter parents, facebook, and Wal-Mart : homesickness in contemporary America.
• Sommario/riassunto: Homesickness today is dismissed as a sign of immaturity, what children feel at summer camp, but in the nineteenth century it was recognized as a powerful emotion. When gold miners in California heard the tune ""Home, Sweet Home,"" they sobbed. When Civil War soldiers became homesick, army doctors sent them home, lest they die. Such images don't fit with our national mythology, which celebrates the restless individualism of colonists, explorers, pioneers, soldiers, and immigrants who supposedly left home and never looked back.Using letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological s