Inventing America's First Immigration Crisis: Political Nativism in the Antebellum West
- ISBN-10
- 0823289869
- ISBN-13
- 9780823289868
- Category
- Social Science
- Pages
- 316
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-09-01
- Publisher
- Fordham University Press
- Author
- Luke Ritter
Description
Why have Americans expressed concern about immigration at some times but not at others? In pursuit of an answer, this book examines America’s first nativist movement, which responded to the rapid influx of 4.2 million immigrants between 1840 and 1860 and culminated in the dramatic rise of the National American Party. As previous studies have focused on the coasts, historians have not yet completely explained why westerners joined the ranks of the National American, or “Know Nothing,” Party or why the nation’s bloodiest anti-immigrant riots erupted in western cities—namely Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In focusing on the antebellum West, Inventing America’s First Immigration Crisis illuminates the cultural, economic, and political issues that originally motivated American nativism and explains how it ultimately shaped the political relationship between church and state. In six detailed chapters, Ritter explains how unprecedented immigration from Europe and rapid westward expansion re-ignited fears of Catholicism as a corrosive force. He presents new research on the inner sanctums of the secretive Order of Know-Nothings and provides original data on immigration, crime, and poverty in the urban West. Ritter argues that the country’s first bout of political nativism actually renewed Americans’ commitment to church–state separation. Native-born Americans compelled Catholics and immigrants, who might have otherwise shared an affinity for monarchism, to accept American-style democracy. Catholics and immigrants forced Americans to adopt a more inclusive definition of religious freedom. This study offers valuable insight into the history of nativism in U.S. politics and sheds light on present-day concerns about immigration, particularly the role of anti-Islamic appeals in recent elections.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2020-09-01
- 288 pages
- Ebook
- Fordham University Press
Similar books
-
Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy
By Katherine Benton-CohenInventing the Immigration Problem describes the labyrinthine bureaucracy, broad administrative authority, and quantitative record-keeping that followed in the wake of these regulations.
-
Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada
By María Cristina GarcíaTells the story of the 20th-century Central American migration, and how domestic and foreign policy interests shaped the asylum policies of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
-
Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters
By Walter FriedmanTwo recent articles on the methods ofHarvard Economic Society are Giovanni Favero, “Weather Forecast or Rain Dance? Interwar Business Barome- ters” (working paper, Department of Economics University ofVenice, 2007), 1–34 and To- bias F.
-
American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century
By Christine Stansell... 249,254–55, 257,258,303 and Provincetown Players, 302–3 Oppenheim, James, 156, 219 Orlenev theater troupe, 123–24, 125 Others (poetry review), 99, 165, 233 Out of Bohemia (Fosdick), 33 Outsiders (Chambers), 34 Owen, Robert, 45 Owen, ...
-
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America - Updated Edition
By Mae M. NgaiThis book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy—a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about ...
-
Let’s Talk About Your Wall: Mexican Writers Respond to the Immigration Crisis
By Carmen Boullosa, Alberto QuinteroCelebrated novelist Carmen Boullosa (author of Texas and Before) and Alberto Quintero redress this imbalance with this collection of essays—translated into English for the first time—drawing on writing by journalists, novelists, and ...
-
The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
By George FriedmanThis new book is both provocative and entertaining.
-
Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism
By Laura E. GómezNamed One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR A timely and groundbreaking argument that all Americans must grapple with Latinos' dynamic racial identity—because it impacts everything we think we know about race in America Who are Latinos ...
-
A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror
By Larry Schweikart, Michael Patrick Allen28 Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture: A World View (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 26; William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 667. 29 Jaime Vicens Vives, ...
-
Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s
By Tyler Anbinder8, 1860; Russell McClain, "The New York Express: Voice of Opposition" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1955), 229-34; St. Clairsville [Ohio] Independent Republican, April 28, May 17, June 14 (quotation), 1860; Paul Hallerberg, ...