An award-winning historian reframes our continuing argument over immigration with an engaging history of xenophobia in the United States and its destructive effect The United States is called a nation of immigrants. However it is likewise a country of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational worry, hatred, and hostility towards immigrants has actually been a defining function of our nation from the colonial age to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin mocked Germans for their “strange and foreign methods.” Americans’ stress and anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were omitted, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported. Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to face this history, America for Americans explains how xenophobia works, why it has actually endured, and how it threatens America. It is a needed corrective and spur to action for any concerned resident.
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