Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924 (The American Ways Series)

In the thirty-five years after 1890, more than 20 million immigrants came to the United States—a greater number than in any comparable period, before or since. They were often greeted in hostile fashion, a reflection of American nativism that by the 1890s was already well developed. In this analytical narrative, Roger Daniels examines the condition of immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans during a period of supposed progress for American minorities. He shows that they experienced as much repression as advance. Not Like Us opens by considering the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the hinge on which U.S. immigration policy turned and a symbol of the unfriendly climate toward minorities that would prevail for decades. Mr. Daniels continues the story through the 1890s, the so-called Progressive Era, the opportunities and conflicts arising out of World War I, and the “tribal twenties,” when nativism and xenophobia dominated American society. An epilogue points out gains and losses since the 1924 National Origins Act. Throughout Mr. Daniels’s focus is on legislation, judicial decisions, mob violence, and the responses of minority groups. The record is scarcely one of unalloyed progress. In the thirty-five years after 1890, more than 20 million immigrants came to the United States - a greater number than in any comparable period before or since. Despite American mythology about "melting pots" and "tossed salads," the newcomers were often treated in hostile fashion. Tracing their experiences in confronting the forces of American nativism, Roger Daniels finds that a period of supposed progress was instead filled with conflict and xenophobia. If so many immigrants came to American shores in this period, how can it be called an age of nativism? "The answer," Mr. Daniels writes, "is that by the 1890s powerful anti-immigrant forces had already become organized. Slowly but surely these nativists worked toward what became their major triumph, the so-called National Origins Act of 1924." But immigrants alone were not the focus of reactionary forces; African Americans and Native Americans also suffered abuse and neglect. In his analytical narrative, Mr. Daniels examines the condition of these three groups, with attention to legislation, judicial decisions, mob violence, and the responses of minorities. Scan0001 Scan0002 Scan0003 Scan0004 Scan0005 Scan0006 Scan0007 Scan0008 Scan0009 Scan0010 Scan0011 Scan0012 Scan0013 Scan0014 Scan0015 Scan0016 Scan0017 Scan0018 Scan0019 Scan0020 Scan0021 Scan0022 Scan0023 Scan0024 Scan0025 Scan0026 Scan0027 Scan0028 Scan0029 Scan0030 Scan0031 Scan0032 Scan0033 Scan0034 Scan0035 Scan0036 Scan0037 Scan0038 Scan0039 Scan0040 Scan0041 Scan0042 Scan0043 Scan0044 Scan0045 Scan0046 Scan0047 Scan0048 Scan0049 Scan0050 Scan0051 Scan0052 Scan0053 Scan0054 Scan0055 Scan0056 Scan0057 Scan0058 Scan0059 Scan0060 Scan0061 Scan0062 Scan0063 Scan0064 Scan0065 Scan0066 Scan0067 Scan0068 Scan0069 Scan0070 Scan0071 Scan0072 Scan0073 Scan0074 Scan0075 Scan0076 Scan0077 Scan0078 Scan0079 Scan0080 Scan0081 Scan0082 Scan0083 Scan0084 Scan0085 Scan0086 Scan0087 Scan0088 Scan0089 Scan0090 Scan0091 Scan0092 Scan0093 Scan0094 Scan0095 Scan0096 Scan0097 Scan0098 Scan0099 Scan0100 Scan0101 Examining the conditions of immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans between 1890 and 1924, the heyday of immigration and a time of supposed progress for American minorities, Mr. Daniels finds that these groups experienced as much repression as advance. In this analytical narrative, Mr. Daniels examines the conditions of immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans between 1890 and 1924, the heyday of immigration and a time of supposed progress for American minorities. The author focuses on immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans and "on struggles over ethnicity and race in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America."--Preface, p. [vii]