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...

The wind blows in newcomers from all directions. "They" become "we," and we become a garden.--back cover.

Describes the history of Ellis Island, a gateway for many immigrants coming to the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and details the restoration of the landmark and its reopening as a museum.

An account of "the other Ellis Island"--Angel Island, California, the entry point for one million Asian immigrants in the early 20th century.

Carved in Silence tells the story of Chinese immigrants who were detained at the United States Immigration Station at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay during the little known Chinese Exclusion era. The film examines the genesis of racially discriminatory immigration policies, its reality, and its consequences. Interviews are intercut with historical footage and dramatic re-enactments to powerfully translate the impact of public policies into human...