Post #2

This week I started reading a book called Norwegian-American Studies and Records. It is a collection of articles about Norwegian immigration and the notable people of Norwegian fame. The article that I just read was called, Norwegian Migration to America by Einar Haugen.

I found the article to be very interesting. I usually love anything that has to do with Norway and this didn’t disappoint. The style of the writing was half the fun of the whole article. It was written in such a proud but modest voice it kept me wanting to read more. The main focus of the first few pages was the reasons for emigration from Norway. The article listed reasons such as a desire for adventure and more thoughtful reasons when to me the reason is clear, being there wasn’t enough land to go around for all the people and some of them had to leave. Norway only is about 3% arable land so the population growth before the mass emigration couldn’t last forever. But they also did mention something that I think did have truth behind it. People left because they could go and do something. If they stayed home the would sit on the same plot of land and go nowhere in life so I am sure that there were people who didn’t want to be a farmer and this was the only way out. The latter half of the article talks about where the Norwegians settled in America. Many of them came to the Midwest as well as quite a few stayed in New York. They stayed in Brooklyn and I find it very interesting because I was in Brooklyn this summer and we stayed at a former Norwegian church. The pastor had told us that the whole neighborhood had been full of Norwegians a few decades ago, which was now a predominantly Mexican neighborhood. Thinking back from that event with the context of the book in mind, I realized that things constantly are moving. This is a great book and I am excited to read more.