What's the origin of the phrase 'Melting pot" as referenc to U.S. cultural diversity?

[Ringo]

I think I got it all in the thread title.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

http://www.word-detective.com/back-k2.html#meltingpot

The phrase, as you thought so many years ago, is indeed “melting pot.” Although “meld,” meaning to merge or combine, would be a plausible word to substitute, there is no doubt about the original form of the phrase. That’s because it comes from the title of a popular play – “The Melting Pot” – written by Israel Zangwill in 1908. Literally speaking, a melting pot is a vessel in which metals or other substances are melted. While “melting pot” as a metaphor for the process of immigrants being assimilated into American life was probably not invented by Zangwill, his play popularized the term and made it a permanent part of the American popular idiom.

This other site gives some of the background to the term pre-Zangwill.

The term “melting pot” dates from early twentieth century with the drama “The Melting-Pot” by the British-Jewish author Israel Zangwill which became very popular immediately after its first performances in 1908. The idea of melting pot is much older, however. Look at Crevecoeur’s “Letters from an American Farmer” of 1783, for example (NB: The “Letters” were practically unknown in the U.S. until the turn of the century.). Among German immigrants, there had been much talk of a “Schmelztiegel” (=melting pot) as early as middle of 19th century. Then there is also an obscure, posthumously published text originating from around the 1850s by Emerson in which he talks about a “smelting pot”.

One aspect that is generally overlooked is the changed meaning of melting pot: While the melting pot-concept until the time of around World War I ideally sees individuals melting into a not always clearly defined American mainstream, it afterwards rather means the melting and fusing of different nationalities/ethnic groups into the American nation. You can see this change by looking at texts and pictures that describe the melting pot. The individuals that act in stage performances such as in the famous Melting Pot Performance of the Ford English School of 1916 are not acting in their own right but as representatives of their nationalities. In a way this change reflects a change in the understanding of immigrant assimilation and integration, a change that occurred in the 1910s and 1920s, but also in the definition of the American nation (see for example Louis Adamic’s Nation of Nations).

[Kimstu]

This thread gets my vote for the most efficiently asked and answered GQ question ever.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Yeah. That’s why I’m known as “Thread-Killer” Mapcase. :smack: