LEVI STRAUS

Levi Straus

Table of Contents

1-Research Abstract3

2-Annotated Bibliography5

3-Draft9

4-Final Research Essay11

References22

1-Research Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of American Ethnic experience in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on famous immigrant Levi Strauss and his relation with ethnic experience in United States. German and central European Jewish immigrants of the 1815-1880 immigration wave quickly found themselves engaged in the same sorts of occupations they had known in Europe--petty trade and peddling. Only a few had the means to establish themselves in business quickly; farming was an occupation totally foreign to the Jewish experience; and while there was a need for laborers in America's growing industries, there was little hope for advancement. Many of America's leading retail concerns were founded in this manner, among them Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Macy's; Gimbels; and Levi-Strauss Company. The research also analyzes many aspects of Levi Strauss brand and tries to gauge its effect on Americans. Levi Strauss, was a German-Jewish immigrant to the United States who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Company, began in 1853 in San Jose, California. Levi Strauss was born on February 26, 1829 in Buttenheim, Bavaria to Hirsch Strauss and his wife Rebecca (Haas) Strauss. His parents named him Löb, but he changed it to Levi after he came to the United States. Levi Strauss (1829-1902) founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. He founded Levi Strauss & Company in 1853 in San Francisco. Levi's name at birth was Loeb, but when he immigrated to the U.S., it was changed to Levi. He was born in Buttenheim in Bavaria, Germany. Young Levi sailed from Bremerhaven to New York where his two older brothers had already established a textile and tailoring business. In 1853, Strauss became an American citizen and moved to San Francisco, California, where the California Gold Rush was still in high gear. Strauss opened a dry goods wholesale business called Levi Strauss & Co. The story goes that miners, often complaining about the easily torn cotton "britches" and pockets that "split right out," gave Levi the idea to make a rugged overall trouser for the miners to wear. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for Levi's Populairty in the West and tries to describe the overall effect of famous immigrant Levi Strauss on U.S. ethnic minority.

2-Annotated Bibliography

Diner, H. (1983). Erin's daughters in America: Irish immigrant women in the nineteenth century. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. (ISBN: 0801828724)

Diner focuses on the experiences of Irish women, both in Ireland and in the United States as they made their way across the Atlantic. Diner provides a rich treatment of the lives of these women, detailing their working, living and loving conditions. We see their strengths and weaknesses exhibited in their conduct. Diner avoids both harsh criticism and tender loving hagiography.

Gjerde, J. (Ed.). (1998). Major problems in American and ethnic history: Documents and essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin ...