Not Fit for Our Society:

Is 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, with the fear—and loathing—of newcomers that
provides one of the faultlines of American cultural and political life.
Schrag describes the eerie similarities between the race-based arguments
for restricting Irish, German, Slav, Italian, Jewish, and Chinese
immigrants in the past and the arguments for restricting Latinos and
others today. He links the terrible history of eugenic "science" to
ideas, individuals, and groups now at the forefront of the fight against
rational immigration policies. Not Fit for Our Society makes a
powerful case for understanding the complex, often paradoxical history
of immigration restriction as we work through the issues that inform,
and often distort, the debate over who can become a citizen, who
decides, and on what basis.

Peter Schrag, for many years the editorial page editor and
later a weekly columnist for the Sacramento Bee, currently
contributes to The Nation, Harper's, The Los Angeles Times, and
other publications. He is a visiting scholar at the Institute for
Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and the
author of several books, including Paradise Lost and California:
America's High-Stakes Experiment (both from UC Press) and Final
Test: The Battle for Adequacy in America's Schools. Peter Schrag is
the 2010 winner of the Carey McWilliams Award from the California
Studies Association.

Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism and Immigration (Hardcover)

By Peter Schrag

ISBN-13: 9780520259782
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: University of California Press, 5/2010

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