Barkan (2007) argues that the field allows historians to use alternate models of interpretation, unite qualitative and quantitative data, apply sociological models to historical patterns, examine more deeply macro-level policies and decisions, and, especially, empathize with the ethnic groups under study.
1915), the director of scores of PhD dissertations at Harvard University was an important pioneer and sponsor of ethnic historiography.
[1] Major encyclopedias have helped define the field; Handlin sponsored one published by Harvard University Press in 1980 that received wide media attention because it tied in with an American interest in their roots.
It sees the immigrant community as an essentially North American phenomenon and integrates it into the mainstream of Canadian culture.
[5] Much research is done by reading the letters immigrants wrote to relatives back home, often comparing the advantages and disadvantages of their new lives.