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[larryc]

Hmmm, maybe the author is trying for a generic term that encompasses different sorts of white people. I sometimes write about fur traders in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s--Americans, English, French Canadian, Scots, and a smattering of others.  When I get tired of writing "white" I am hard-pressed for another term. I have written Euro-American but that is so awkward.

[martina]

In Israel the term Anglo-Saxons is used to refer to anyone who is a native speaker of English (South Africans, Brits, Canadians, Americans, Australians, etc.)- which when you think about it is bizarre, as very few people who live in Israel (and even those who speak English) have any Anglo-Saxon heritage!

[crazybatlady]

Hmmm, maybe the author is trying for a generic term that encompasses different sorts of white people. I sometimes write about fur traders in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s--Americans, English, French Canadian, Scots, and a smattering of others.  When I get tired of writing "white" I am hard-pressed for another term. I have written Euro-American but that is so awkward.

Thank you for your reply, Larry.  I value your opinion greatly and in this case even more so because it sounds like you write within the same area as the author of this article.

So:

It seems like I might be overreading the use of this term?  That in fact the author is just using it to avoid the repetitiveness of white, white, white?  (And why is this author capitalizing white?  Do you do that too?)

However, I understand if the author is trying to use the terminology of the era, but he doesn't seem to be using it properly--he calls a group of explorers that seems to include an Italian "Anglo-Saxon", for example.  I wish I had the article here so I could quote it.

I guess I'd conclude that he's using the same term that the explorers did, but not in the same way; instead, he's using it more like we understand it today--which seems like sloppy scholarship to me.

Is this an unfair conclusion?

[larryc]

I think you should email the author and get to the bottom of this.  I have no idea why an 1890 Italian in Alaska would have been described as Anglo-Saxon, either then or now. I do not capitalize white, or black, but I do Indian or African American.  All standard usage.

[helpful]

It has always been my understanding that "Anglo-Saxon" refers to people, white or otherwise, who trace their ancestry to the British Isles and/or Germany. Scotish Americans, for example, are a subset of that group. 

The Scots, and the Irish, and the Welsh, are of Celt heritage, not Anglo-Saxon. Completely different group.

[crazybatlady]

I've found the email address and will get to the bottom of this (tactfully and kindly, of course).

Thanks for everyone's help.

[zharkov]

It has always been my understanding that "Anglo-Saxon" refers to people, white or otherwise, who trace their ancestry to the British Isles and/or Germany. Scotish Americans, for example, are a subset of that group. 

The Scots, and the Irish, and the Welsh, are of Celt heritage, not Anglo-Saxon. Completely different group.

And a lot of those from the British Isles have Norman last names, not Anglo-Saxon.  The last Anglo-Saxon English king was in 1066; mostly Normans since then, toss in some Dutch and German, too. 

[gennimom]

Hmm. I always thought I was a WASP. I guess I'm not since my brother's geneological efforts have shown we have German, Swedish, Scots, and probably Irish in us, as well as English. Heh.

[supernumerary]

I've just been reading that the Germans referred to the Brits and Americans in the 1930s as 'Anglo-Saxon' regardless of provenance. Don't know if they still do, but since the French certainly do, I'm wondering whether Anglo-Saxon isn't just used to mean 'English-speaking', i.e. it's more about language than race: Anglo-Saxon is an English-speaking white person. That would explain what some posters have said about Celtic peoples being called Anglo-Saxon, and what Martina was saying about Israel.

[gennimom]

You know, at one time these words may have had clear definitions, but I would be willing to bet that time and all of the changes that have happened since then have made their usage not so clear cut. There seems to be a lot of words out there that don't mean quite the same thing they used to.
We can look at the fact that the original speakers of English probably wouldn't be able to understand us today.

[adhoc]

The "Saxon" in "Anglo-Saxon" refers to Germany.

[gennimom]

Ugh. I think I'm getting lost now. Although my brain seems to be trying to remind me I heard that somewhere before. Maybe I am a WASP? I don't know anymore. *sigh*
May be getting close to time for bed. Food first though.

[supernumerary]

It does indeed, adhoc, which is what makes it so interesting to read the things the Germans said about the 'Anglo-Saxons' in the 1930s. This being between the wars it wasn't flattering. The irony is striking, but again it's just a use of language since in terms of 'blood' many Brits and Americans at the time were (are?) every bit as German as any German from Germany (language and culture apart).

[dr_stones]

"White, Anglo" is a term used to broadly describe Caucasians who speak English, in order to differentiate them from caucasians of Latino heritage.  But Anglo-Saxon is too narrow to even encapsulate the hsitoric English-speakers of the world . . . I dare say, were one to go into a bar in Dublin or Edinborough or Aberystwyth and refer to a patron as an "Anglo-Saxo,"  one'd likely find a celtic Irish, celtic Scottish, or Welsh fist amidst your teeth.

[helpful]

"White, Anglo" is a term used to broadly describe Caucasians who speak English, in order to differentiate them from caucasians of Latino heritage.  But Anglo-Saxon is too narrow to even encapsulate the hsitoric English-speakers of the world . . . I dare say, were one to go into a bar in Dublin or Edinborough or Aberystwyth and refer to a patron as an "Anglo-Saxo,"  one'd likely find a celtic Irish, celtic Scottish, or Welsh fist amidst your teeth.

As I have pointed out before, even the term "Caucasian" has doubtful origins, so I don't use it.