Immigration: Waves and Crises
Hysteria over immigration is hardly new. The US saw large waves of immigration from 1890 to 1910 and reacted strongly with riots, discrimination and federal action. Books and pamphlets warned of contamination of the nation by inferior races. In that case, the "inferior races" everyone was worried about were Italians, Poles, Jews and other East and South Europeans. A book that embodied the spirit of the times was: The Passing of the Great Race , by Madison Grant. Grant was a highly educated New England patrician, an explorer, naturalist, and a pioneer in attempting to preserve the Bison and other rapidly disappearing fauna of the American West. After these adventures, he devoted himself to the study of so-called scientific racism, and his book summarized and popularized these notions. His book was rooted in the idea of separate origins of the various races of man, and the notion that there were higher and lower races. The highest races, he procla...