American Intolerance
Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
This historical review of the US treatment of immigrants and minority groups documents the suspicion and persecution that often met newcomers and those perceived to be different.Contrary to popular belief, the poor and huddled masses were never welcome in America. Though the engraving on the base of the Statue of Liberty makes that claim, history reveals a far less-welcoming message. This comprehensive survey of cultural and racial exclusion in the United States examines the legacy of hostility toward immigrants over two centuries. The authors document abuses against Catholics in the early 19th century in response to the influx of German and Irish immigrants; hostility against Mexicans throughout the Southwest, where signs in bars and restaurants read, "No Dogs, No Negros, No Mexicans"; "yellow peril" fears leading to a ban on Chinese immigration for ten years; punitive measures against Native Americans traditions, which became punishable by fines and hard labor; the persecution of German Americans during World War I and Japanese Americans during World War II; the refusal to admit Jewish refugees of the Holocaust; and the ongoing legacy of mistreating African Americans from slavery to the injustices of the present day.Though the authors note that the United States has accepted tens of millions of immigrants during its relatively short existence, its troubling history of persecution is often overlooked. President Donald Trump's targeting of Muslim and Mexican immigrants is just the most recent chapter in a long, sad history of social panics about "evil" foreigners who are made scapegoats due to their ethnicity or religious beliefs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this concise study, historian Bartholomew and journalist Reumschussel argue that, though some Americans claim to oppose immigration currently on economic grounds, in reality today, as in many instances over the past 200 years, immigration opponents are motivated by seeing ethnic or religious groups as socially or culturally threatening. Just as Muslims are today portrayed in the media and by immigration opponents as attempting to undermine national security, throughout the 19th century Protestant Americans feared Catholic migrants, especially those from Ireland, because they saw them as minions of the Pope; American cities saw outbreaks of violence against Catholic churches and convents. At the same time, throughout the Southwest, some despised Mexicans as "mongrels" whose alleged mental inferiority encouraged them to follow bandits or Communists, and immigrants from China were characterized in the pulp novels and tabloids of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as "pigtailed barbarians" who lived in squalor and corrupted American youth. During the World Wars, German and Japanese immigrants were accused of being enemy agents, and some American scientists' embrace of eugenics discouraged the nation from accepting many Jewish refugees. This is not enjoyable to read, but it effectively shows that hatred and fear of immigrants is a longstanding American tradition.)
