Pie and Pluralism: Lizzie Black Kander's Settlement Work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1894-1922

Abstract

The Progressive Era, roughly the time period between 1890 and 1914, was a time of transformations, challenges, and uncertainty. In response to immigration, industrialization and urbanization, and an unsatisfied working class, settlement houses developed to address the issues of the time. One settlement house founder, who has been largely overlooked by the history books, devised a unique method to reach the Russian-Jewish population of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lizzie Black Kander attempted to change the lives of immigrants, for better or worse, via assimilation through cultural eating habits. She created a settlement house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, called "The Settlement," and taught young girls how to keep house and prepare a proper meal. Using the lessons from her cooking classes at The Settlement, Kander also produced a cookbook, which is still reproduced and sold today. Kander's methods and motivations for settlement house work are complex and help to explore the broader American settlement house movement. While Kander is typical of many settlement house workers who believed in assimilating immigrants, she also represents a thrust of the settlement house movement that allowed some choice over cultural identity and granted immigrants the right to assimilate on their own terms.