Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, and ImmigrationVanessa B. Beasley Texas A&M University Press, 2006 M07 11 - 296 pages “How can the immigrant of yesterday be lionized as the very foundation of the nation’s character, while the immigrant of today is often demonized as a threat to the nation’s safety and stability?” ask volume editor Vanessa B. Beasley in her introduction to this timely book. As the nation’s ceremonial as well as political leader, presidents through their rhetoric help to create the frame for the American public’s understanding of immigration. In an overarching essay and ten case studies, Who Belongs in America? Explores select moments in U.S. immigration history, focusing on the presidential discourse that preceded, address, or otherwise corresponded to events. These chapters, which originated as presentations at the Texas A&M University Conference on Presidential Rhetoric, share a common interest in how, when and under what circumstances U.S. presidents or their administrations have negotiated the tension that lies at the heart of the immigration issue in the United States. The various authors look at the dual views of immigrants as either scapegoats for cultural fears, especially during trying times. U.S. presidents have had to navigate between these two motifs, and they have chosen different ways to do so. Indeed, as these studies show, their words have sometimes been at odds with their deeds and policies. Since 9/11, few issues have more public significance than how America views immigrants. The contributors to this volume provide context that will help inform the public debate, as well as the scholarship, for years to come. Vanessa B. Beasley, an associate professor of communication at the University of Georgia, is the author of You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric, also published by Texas A&M University Press. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Texas at Austin. |
From inside the book
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... Chinese Exclusion : Causes and Consequences , 1882-1943 89 Roger Daniels Chapter 5 Hooking the Hyphen : Woodrow Wilson's War Rhetoric and the Italian American Community 107 Mary Anne Trasciatti Chapter 6 Immigration and the Red Scare ...
... Chinese , as the nation passed its first feder- ally mandated immigration restrictions against one specific ethnic group . Called the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 , these restrictions passed in large part due to the concerns of " west ...
... Chinese coolies in the labor market . " 17 And it was not just white men and women who expressed such concerns . " Every hour sees us elbowed out of some employment , " African American Frederick Douglass wrote in 1885 , " to make room ...
... Chinese Exclusion Acts . Daniels concludes by noting that some of the current pro- cedures used by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ( USCIS ) to retain and incarcerate immigrants have roots in these nineteenth - century ...
... Chinese Exclusion Acts , were developed and codi- fied into law , and more recent times , when some degree of exclusion is assumed necessary in order to protect the nation's security , its economics , and its political system ( as it ...
Contents
President of All the People | 19 |
The Aliens Are Coming The Federalist Attack on the First Amendment | 37 |
Presidents and Religious Diversity in the Nineteenth Century | 61 |
Chinese Exclusion Causes and Consequences 18821943 | 89 |
Hooking the Hyphen Woodrow Wilsons War Rhetoric and the Italian American Community | 107 |
Immigration and the Red Scare | 134 |
Can the Alien Speak? The McCarranWalter act and the First Amendment | 149 |
Questions of Race Caste and Citizenship Hector P Garcia Lyndon B Johnson and the Polemics of the Bracero Immigrant Labor Program | 183 |
Rhetorical Ambivalence Bush and Clinton Address the Crisis of Haitian Refugees | 206 |
The Class Politics of Cultural Pluralism Presidential Campaigns and the Latino Vote | 247 |
A New Hope or a Recurring Fear? | 272 |
Contributors | 279 |
283 | |
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Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration Vanessa B. Beasley Limited preview - 2006 |