“Very Useful to Young Men in the Mills?” Christian Youth Movements and Swedish Migrants in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 1880–1930

Baigent discusses the attraction of Christian, character-building movements, especially youth movements, to the Swedish population of McKeesport PA between 1880 and 1930. The appeal of such movements to Americans of different classes, genders, and races has been illuminatingly studied since the 1980s, but the movements' appeal to different ethnic groups, other than African Americans, and particularly those close in appearance and ideology to the host population such as the Swedes were, is less well documented. and is examined here in an attempt to explore the response of one group of immigrants to an important aspect of contemporary American life.