"Disinclined to write a history of German immigration to the United States, Gustav Koerner set about to describe and assess the 19th-century contributions--his coverage substantially exceeded 1848--of Germans to American life and society. In this context he considers the role of Germans and German-Americans in helping to establish Cincinnati as the center of Ohio Valley commerce, the plethora of German-language newspapers, the various religious denominations, the German Democratic Party, struggles against Nativism, Germans in the American Civil War, and so forth"--The publisher.