Creating the New Right Ethnic in 1970s America: The Intersection of Anger and Nostalgia

This work analyzes the "New Ethnicity" of the 1970s as a way of understanding America's political turn to the right in that decade. An upsurge of vocal ethnic consciousness among second-, third-, and fourth-generation Southern and Eastern Europeans, the New Ethnicity simultaneously challenged and emulated earlier identity movements such as Black Power.

The movement was more complex than the historical memory of racist, reactionary white ethnic leaders suggests. The movement began with a sign...