America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States
This definitive history of American xenophobia is "essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist)

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported.

Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. Now updated with an afterword reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged xenophobia, America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.
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America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States
This definitive history of American xenophobia is "essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist)

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported.

Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. Now updated with an afterword reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged xenophobia, America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.
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America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

by Erika Lee
America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

by Erika Lee

Hardcover(New Edition)

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Overview

This definitive history of American xenophobia is "essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist)

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported.

Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. Now updated with an afterword reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged xenophobia, America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781541672604
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 11/26/2019
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 890,744
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Erika Lee is is the inaugural Bae Family Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumni Professor at Harvard University. The past president of the Organization of American Historians, she is the author of The Making of Asian America and other award-winning books.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 "Strangers to Our Language and Constitutions" 17

Chapter 2 "Americans Must Rule America" 39

Chapter 3 "The Chinese Are No More" 75

Chapter 4 The "Inferior Races" of Europe 113

Chapter 5 "Getting Rid of the Mexicans" 147

Chapter 6 "Military Necessity" 183

Chapter 7 Xenophobia and Civil Rights 221

Chapter 8 "Save Our State" 251

Chapter 9 Islamophobia 289

Conclusion 321

Epilogue to the Paperback Edition: When Xenophobia Spreads Like a Virus 339

Acknowledgments 371

Archives and Collections 377

Notes 379

Index 443

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