Title/Author: America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

Publisher: Basic Books

Pages: 480

Publication date (Paperback Edition): June 15, 2021

In a nutshell (Publisher):

This definitive history of American xenophobia is “essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society.” (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist). 

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their “strange and foreign ways.” Americans’ anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported. Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.

Now updated with an afterword reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged xenophobia, America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.

Some quick thoughts:

This book is finally out in paperback! Ok first thing’s first. It’s at least 500 pages long and at a glance, it looks like there’s a lot to digest. BUT! I’m looking forward to reading it; to understand the whys and hows of xenophobia in America, which isn’t a problem only here but worldwide, even back in my home country, Malaysia. Thank you, Prof. Erika Lee for writing this.

Thank you Katherine and Basic Books for a copy of this book and for bringing this book to my attention. I can’t wait to dig in and educate myself.

Be on the look out for a review once I get to it!