- The Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity
- Contributors
- Introduction: The Making of America
- The Impact of Immigration Legislation: 1875 to the Present
- European Migrations
- Asian Immigration
- Latino Immigration
- African American Migration from the Colonial Era to the Present
- Emancipation and Exploitation in Immigrant Women’s Lives
- Protecting America’s Borders and the Undocumented Immigrant Dilemma
- Inclusion, Exclusion, and the Making of American Nationality
- Race and Citizenship
- Assimilation in the Past and Present
- Whiteness and Race
- Race and U.S. Panethnic Formation
- Intermarriage and the Creation of a New American
- Immigration, Medical Regulation, and Eugenics
- The World of the Immigrant Worker
- Neighborhoods, Immigrants, and Ethnic Americans
- Machine Bosses, Reformers, and the Politics of Ethnic and Minority Incorporation
- Immigration, Ethnicity, Race, and Organized Crime
- The Myth of Ethnic Success: Old Wine in New Bottles
- Immigration and Ethnic Diversity in the South, 1980–2010
- Allegiance, Dual Citizenship, and the Ethnic Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy
- Historians and Sociologists Debate Transnationalism
- Written Forms of Communication from Immigrant Letters to Instant Messaging
- Ethnicity, Race, and Religion beyond Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Whites
- Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in American Film
- Language Retention/Language Shift, “English Only,” and Multilingualism in the United States
- Melting Pots, Salad Bowls, Ethnic Museums, and American Identity
- New Approaches in Teaching Immigration and Ethnic History
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Any examination of American nationalism must contend with its contradictory character. On the one hand, this nationalism harbors a civic creed promising all Americans equal rights irrespective of race, religion, sex, or national origin. On the other hand, certain religious and racial traditions within American nationalism have defined the United States in exclusionary ways. Thus, while America proclaimed itself an open society, it also saw itself as a Protestant nation with a mission to save the world from Catholicism and other false faiths; and while it proclaimed that all men are created equal, it aspired, for much of its history, to be a white republic. This chapter analyzes the balance between American nationalism’s inclusive and exclusionary traditions during different periods of American history, and how and why the balance between the civic, religious, and racial traditions has changed over time.
Keywords: American nationalism, civic nationalism, racial nationalism, religious nationalism, Judeo-Christian civilization, birthright citizenship, anti-Catholicism, immigration restriction, multiculturalism, Muslim immigrants
Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge.
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- The Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity
- Contributors
- Introduction: The Making of America
- The Impact of Immigration Legislation: 1875 to the Present
- European Migrations
- Asian Immigration
- Latino Immigration
- African American Migration from the Colonial Era to the Present
- Emancipation and Exploitation in Immigrant Women’s Lives
- Protecting America’s Borders and the Undocumented Immigrant Dilemma
- Inclusion, Exclusion, and the Making of American Nationality
- Race and Citizenship
- Assimilation in the Past and Present
- Whiteness and Race
- Race and U.S. Panethnic Formation
- Intermarriage and the Creation of a New American
- Immigration, Medical Regulation, and Eugenics
- The World of the Immigrant Worker
- Neighborhoods, Immigrants, and Ethnic Americans
- Machine Bosses, Reformers, and the Politics of Ethnic and Minority Incorporation
- Immigration, Ethnicity, Race, and Organized Crime
- The Myth of Ethnic Success: Old Wine in New Bottles
- Immigration and Ethnic Diversity in the South, 1980–2010
- Allegiance, Dual Citizenship, and the Ethnic Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy
- Historians and Sociologists Debate Transnationalism
- Written Forms of Communication from Immigrant Letters to Instant Messaging
- Ethnicity, Race, and Religion beyond Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Whites
- Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in American Film
- Language Retention/Language Shift, “English Only,” and Multilingualism in the United States
- Melting Pots, Salad Bowls, Ethnic Museums, and American Identity
- New Approaches in Teaching Immigration and Ethnic History
- Index
