Defining America

Reviews / Votes

"[Hing's] understanding of history, drawn from personal experience andparticipation, is piercing and helps to put the recent hysteria inperspective. In his book, he applies the lessons of his decades-longresearch and experience to fundamental issues at a critical time in ournation's history."-from the Foreword by Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union "Defining America through Immigration Policy is an excellent book that can be recommended enthusiastically. Bill Ong Hing is a leading scholar of immigration. This book is a landmark work. Hing is thorough, and covers everything from Benjamin Franklin's attacks on German immigrants to the nativism of the turn-of-the-century directed towards Asians, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Catholics and Jews to contemporary border enforcement, undocumented migration, deportation procedures, and internal migration. He conveys the breadth and depth of his research with ample documentation and presents progressive arguments that should influence policy-makers."-Frank H. Wu, Professor of Law, Howard University, and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White "Engagingly contemporary (with historical roots) and at the same time carefully detailed in its coverage, Defining America through Immigration Policy is on the forefront of immigration law and policy theorizing. Hing's structure is straightforward, and his framework for organizing the wide range of immigration law issues is effective. He tells a compelling and disturbing social/legal story that gives human faces to congressional acts, executive policies, and frontline enforcement. Hing's blended approach-chronological, contextual, and specific-provides a readily accessible way into what could otherwise be an information morass. This significant strength distinguishes Defining America through Political Participation."-Eric K. Yamamoto, Professor of Law, University of Hawaii School of Law "[An] insightful, entertaining book [is] a must read for anyone interested in the field of US immigration and the defining of the American character."-Choice "Professor Hing is the rare policy scholar who can provide extensive historical information while making it accessible, interesting and enjoyable for the reader. His new book provides the same type of thoughtful analyses... Overall the book makes an important contribution to immigration history, ethnic studies and public policy. It provides one of the first comprehensive reviews of the tensions between wanted and unwanted immigrants from a policy perspective. It also provides insights into why we hold certain beliefs about immigrants and immigration policy."-Journal of Ethnic History "This is a welcome, hard-headed palliative to certain narratives about US immigration history... the value of this book lies more in the scope of erudition about US immigration history and his mastery of many facets of that vast, complex, and controversial history that has indeed defined America as claimed."-Ethnic and Racial Studies "Read this book. It is the best survey of the history of U.S. immigration policy to be published in at least a half-century and perhaps ever... Defining America through Immigration Policy is a dazzling book with a moral core. In the end it is a hopeful book as well."-Pacific Historical Review "In a tour de force of detailed facts and legal citations, [Hing] wades through the complex legal measures that have guided immigration law and policy over more than two centuries, at each stage linking specific legal actions with dominant views of the 'ordinary American.'"-Law & Politics Book Review