{"product_id":"homesickness-an-american-history-9780195371857","title":"Homesickness: An American History","description":"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\u003cbr\u003edoctors 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUsing letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological studies, this wide-ranging book uncovers the profound pain felt by Americans on the move from the country's founding until the present day. Susan Matt shows how colonists in Jamestown longed for and often returned to England, \u003cbr\u003eAfrican Americans during the Great Migration yearned for their Southern homes, and immigrants nursed memories of Sicily and Guadalajara and, even after years in America, frequently traveled home. These iconic symbols of the undaunted, forward-looking American spirit were often homesick, hesitant, \u003cbr\u003eand reluctant voyagers. National ideology and modern psychology obscure this truth, portraying movement as easy, but in fact Americans had to learn how to leave home, learn to be individualists. Even today, in a global society that prizes movement and that condemns homesickness as a childish\u003cbr\u003eemotion, colleges counsel young adults and their families on how to manage the transition away from home, suburbanites pine for their old neighborhoods, and companies take seriously the emotional toll borne by relocated executives and road warriors. In the age of helicopter parents and boomerang\u003cbr\u003ekids, and the new social networks that sustain connections across the miles, Americans continue to assert the significance of home ties. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy highlighting how Americans reacted to moving farther and farther from their roots, \u003cem\u003eHomesickness: An American History\u003c\/em\u003e revises long-held assumptions about home, mobility, and our national identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Susan J. Matt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 360\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195371857\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2011 pg. 118\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSusan J. Matt\u003c\/strong\u003e is Presidential Distinguished Professor of History at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eKeeping Up with the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":39930769342579,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":47.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_bae8dc27-74e8-4225-b144-c755c77e0d28.jpg?v=1647699375","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/homesickness-an-american-history-9780195371857","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}