Zevi Gutfreund holds a PhD in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
In this illuminating historical account, Zevi Gutfreund posits that
formal language education served as a vector through which
Angelinos—those who possessed social capital and those who aspired
to it—sought to articulate and shape notions of US citizenship in
the twentieth century. Gutfreund uncovers the ways teachers,
parents, and students challenged Americanization and English-only
campaigns and brought to bear their own aspirations for national
belonging. Speaking American proves quite salient and timely as
California continues to both reify and undermine national
xenophobic currents in American immigration politics." —Clif
Stratton, author of Education for Empire: American Schools, Race,
and the Paths of Good Citizenship
"Speaking American asks critical questions about identity,
Americanization, education, and young people. In telling this
complex and important story—difficult, disappointing, and uplifting
at the various twists and turns of Los Angeles history—Zevi
Gutfreund explores how and why L.A. was at the epicenter of
twentieth-century Americanization debates and struggles. He renders
the always-complex social and racial arenas of metropolitan L.A.
with clarity and scholarly acuity." —William Deverell, author of
Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its
Mexican Past
"Our understanding of American identities and educational reform
has broadened significantly in recent years, as scholars have
increasingly identified schools as sites of ongoing negotiation
between students, teachers, diverse communities, and reformers. In
telling the multiple ways in which Angelenos understood what it
meant to “speak American,” Gutfreund’s book adds important insight
regarding how language remained—and remains—a critical part of this
negotiation." —Western Historical Quarterly
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