ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine how Finnish‑American families and other members of communities passed on their values and knowledge of modern society and citizenship to the next generation in the 1920s. This period was a time of Americanisation, when immigrants’ eligibility for citizenship and loyalty to the new home country were increasingly challenged in American societal and political debates. Immigrants became targets of nationalistic education; they were moulded to become decent American citizens by adopting American values, attitudes, and lifestyles, which made the issue of citizenship problematic for immigrants. I focus on Finnish‑American families’ solutions related to their political heritage and civic education in terms of how their understandings of citizenship were constructed and developed socially and ideologically. There was a strong dichotomy in civic education in Finnish‑American communities, which were divided in two ideological groups—the conservatives and radicals—according to their political heritage, ideas, and activities. This division deepened after the Civil War in Finland in 1918. I trace through the memoirs and experiences of two girls—one from each of the opposing groups—to discover what they learned about citizenship from their families, especially in terms of the values the girls’ parents emphasised and the way the girls adapted these values.
