Making Americans
Immigration, Race and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy
Desmond S. King(Author)
Harvard University Press
Published on 15. May 2000
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-674-00088-9 (ISBN)
Description
In the 19th century, virtually anyone could get into the United Sates. But by the 1920s, US immigration policy had become a finely filtered regime of selection. Desmond King looks at this dramatic shift, and the debates behind it, for what they reveal about the construction of an "American" identity. Specifically, the debates in the three decades leading up to 1929 were conceived in terms of desirable versus undesirable immigrants. This not only cemented judgements about specific European groups but reinforced prevailing biases against groups already present in the United States, particularly African Americans, whose inferior status and second-class citizenship - enshrined in Jim Crow laws and embedded in pseudo-scientific arguments about racial classifications - appear to have been consolidated in these decades, Although the values of different groups have always been recognised in the United States, King gives the most thorough account yet of how eugenic arguments were used to establish barriers and to favour an Anglo-Saxon conception of American identity, rejecting claims of other traditions. thus the immigration controversy emerges here as a significant precursor to recent multicultural debates.
This book shows how the choices made about immigration policy in the 1920s played a fundamental role in shaping democracy and ideas about group rights in America.
This book shows how the choices made about immigration policy in the 1920s played a fundamental role in shaping democracy and ideas about group rights in America.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
16 tables
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 162 mm
Weight
650 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-00088-9 (9780674000889)
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E-Book
07/2009
Harvard University Press
€115.99
Available for download