Abstract: | In a book of deep and telling ironies, Peter Schrag provides essential background for understanding the fractious debate over immigration. Covering the earliest days of the Republic to current events, Schrag sets the modern immigration controversy within the context of three centuries of debate over the same questions about who exactly is fit for citizenship. He finds that nativism has long colored our national history, and that the fear-and loathing-of newcomers has provided one of the faultlines of American cultural and political life. Schrag describes the eerie similarities between the race... |
