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A new history exploring U.S. immigration in global context
Histories investigating U.S. immigration have often portrayed America as a domestic melting pot, merging together those who arrive on its shores. Yet this is not a truly accurate depiction of the nation's complex connections to immigration. Offering a brand-new global history of the subject, Foreign Relations takes a comprehensive look at the links between American immigration and U.S. foreign relations. Donna Gabaccia examines America's relationship to immigration and its debates through the prism of the nation's changing foreign policy over the past two centuries. She shows that immigrants were not isolationists who cut ties to their countries of origin or their families. Instead, their relations to America were often in flux and dependent on government policies of the time.
An innovative history of U.S. immigration, Foreign Relations casts a fresh eye on a compelling and controversial topic.
List of contents
Preface ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Isolated or Independent? American Immigration before 1850 24 Chapter 2: Empire and the Discovery of Immigrant Foreign Relations, 1850-1924 70 Chapter 3: Immigration and Restriction: Protection in a Dangerous World, 1850-1965 122 Chapter 4: Immigration and Globalization, 1965 to the Present 176 Conclusion: "The Inalienable Right of Man to Change His Home and Allegiance" 222 Appendix: Suggestions for Further Reading 235 Notes 247 Index 263
About the author
Donna R. Gabaccia is professor of history and former director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Her many books include
We Are What We Eat and
Immigration and American Diversity.
Summary
A new history exploring U.S. immigration in global context
Histories investigating U.S. immigration have often portrayed America as a domestic melting pot, merging together those who arrive on its shores. Yet this is not a truly accurate depiction of the nation's complex connections to immigration. Offering a brand-new global history of the subject, Foreign Relations takes a comprehensive look at the links between American immigration and U.S. foreign relations. Donna Gabaccia examines America’s relationship to immigration and its debates through the prism of the nation’s changing foreign policy over the past two centuries. She shows that immigrants were not isolationists who cut ties to their countries of origin or their families. Instead, their relations to America were often in flux and dependent on government policies of the time.
An innovative history of U.S. immigration, Foreign Relations casts a fresh eye on a compelling and controversial topic.
Additional text
"[T]he book is an excellent summary of U.S. migration history (for which Gabaccia's strength is well known) and a courageous, insightful exploration of America's international history. In laying out the analysis concisely she not only expands migration history but provides a model for linking historical fields together. In so doing, she also expands the methodology of world history."---Patrick Manning, Journal of Social History
