Historically, the English have rarely been seen as a distinct ethnic group in the English-speaking world. Their lives as immigrants have been disregarded by many because of the apparent ease with which they integrated into receiving societies such as those of the United States and Canada. Because of this perception, they have been understudied. In bringing together this collection of essays, David Gleeson seeks to address this historiographical gap.

English Ethnicity and Culture in North America chiefly addresses developments in the United States. Canada does receive some attention, but it is of secondary concern to the majority of the contributors. The lost opportunity for transnational comparison is disappointing. In short, a title reflecting the core academic focus of the authors—the United States—would have been preferable. When viewed as a work on the English in the United States, however, the collection does well to address many topics, including community composition, economic impact, voluntary-associational organization, faith, and recreation. Gleeson clearly aimed to incorporate typical presentations of immigrant groups and their experiences in host societies: the English are “ethnic” and are treated as such. The chapters are well organized, and their themes flow well from one to the other.

The book opens with William Van Vugt's analysis of English immigrants to the United States between 1803 and 1916. Using data collected by the late Charlotte Erickson, Van Vugt brings into play the occupational positions held in this sample before and after immigration, education, faith, regional origin, and timing of the immigration. This is a balanced approach that demonstrates the unique aspects of the English experience—the movement of a group heavily implicated in an industrial economy to an emerging industrial economy—while pointing out strategies the English shared with other immigrant groups during the same period.

Associational life is a key to many studies of immigrant identity. Donald M. MacRaild and Tanja Bueltmann pursue this topic in complementary chapters. MacRaild discusses the Benevolent Order of St. George in the United States, while Bueltmann looks at the Sons of England in Canada. Both the Benevolent Order of St. George and the Sons of England provided for their members an organizational and supportive structure in which to celebrate their “English” identity and to protect their interests. Both appealed to and were oriented toward the interests of the working class. These societies emerged around the same period, operated in a similar manner, and cooperated occasionally at the international level.

The working-class theme continues with Kathryn Lamontagne's chapter on the transfer of English labor traditions and cultural capital with the emigration of skilled textile mill labor from Lancashire to Fall River, Massachusetts is an interesting case study. She demonstrates how English workers brought a strike culture with them and played significant roles in organizing labor and spearheading work actions in the town's mills. The transplantation of organized labor was part of a larger cultural transfer that supported the maintenance of English traditions and leisure activities.

Protestant faith was a cornerstone of English identity. Joseph Hardwick's examination of the Episcopal Church in the United States demonstrates how the church was able to negotiate political and social tensions that existed after the Revolution. This included the continued immigration of ministers from England throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the maintenance of formal and informal ties to the Church of England. The Episcopal Church was able to embrace its English roots with varying degrees of success.

The American South has often been portrayed of a hotbed of Anglophilia. However, the Revolution made such open admiration problematic. Gleeson tracks the use of English identity and ideas in the South after the Revolution, particularly strategies for separating English heritage, ideas, and culture from political allegiance.

James McConnel's chapter examines monuments honoring British royalty in the United States from 1770 to the 1980s, with an emphasis on the efforts to commemorate Queen Victoria. While some movements to erect monuments originated within the English immigrant community, statues were usually framed in terms of broader Anglo-Saxonism or Anglophilia. Even with a growing political rapprochement with England after 1897, royal statues were never popularly supported in the United States and by concentrating on royalty McConnel misses the opportunity for comparison with parallel subjects of commemoration that were more successful.

Dean Allen's chapter on cricket in North America traces how the sport was introduced, played, and perceived in the nineteenth century. Allen mentions Canadian teams in relation to competitions against American teams and notes that the sport was widely played in the Caribbean, but he does not develop these histories. Cricket was also strongly associated with the professional classes and the demonstration of social status and declined with the rise in popularity of baseball and American football.

In the final two chapters, Monika Smialkowska and Mike Sutton shift the focus to folklore. Smialkowska focuses on the English folk revival movement in the United States in the early twentieth century. This movement involved the collection and publication of folk songs, folk dancing, games, festivals, and pageants. American promoters were inspired by the English movement but not always explicitly English in their expression. Smialkowska rejects the idea that the American movement was privileging English cultural biases, noting that it was open to other traditions and activities.

The book closes with a chapter on Morris dancing by Sutton, which traces the development and influences on the traditional folk dances in the United States, notably in the twentieth century, when Morris dancing was reinvigorated in England and beyond. The main thrust of the chapter deals with the question of authenticity and how innovations in dancing styles and the gender of the participants was accepted (or not) by the English community in the United States.

This collection makes a significant contribution to scholarship on English ethnicity and culture in the United States. The inclusion of class as well as other markers of socioeconomic location and identity demonstrates a significant and varied English experience. The collection offers a starting point for future studies on the English and their inclusion in the larger understanding of North American immigrant society.