Good-bye, Piccadilly
About the Book
As much of the world tried to return to normal living and working patterns after World War II, some 70,000 British women chose to marry American servicemen and together became the largest single group of postwar female immigrants to the United States. Jenel Virden draws on questionnaires and interviews to reveal the stories and motives of Britain’s war brides.Though natives to all parts of the British Isles, the women formed an unusually homogenous group that average twenty-three years of age, came from working- or lower-middle-class families, and had completed mandatory schooling to the age of fourteen. Most immigrated alone and married in spite of, rather than because of, the war. Special nonrestrictive immigration laws favored the women, and they found public welcomes and favorable publicity in the US. But as Virden shows, war brides had a strong sense of ethnic identity and other traits in common with immigrants from other countries.
About the Author
Jenel Virden is an instructor of American studies at the University of Hull.Reviews
Blurbs
“Relying on both questionnaires and documentary evidence, Virden has fit the account of British war brides into the larger history of American immigration and made an important contribution to the historical literature.”--Allan M. Winkler, author of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America
Awards
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 1997.Related Titles
