Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than 4 decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Dunbar-Ortiz is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, and is the author or editor of many books, including An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, a recipient of the 2015 American Book Award. She lives in San Francisco. Connect with her at reddirtsite.com or on Twitter @rdunbaro.
“Her thought-work and writing are both full-force with courage and
wisdom. In the age of telling truth, she says, the US has yet to
correct its narrative to acknowledge its settler-colonialist and
imperialist past and present. This book should be taught in
classrooms; readers will finish it changed.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
“Dunbar-Ortiz’s message is clear: uplifting narratives about the
United States as a ‘nation of immigrants’ allow the country to hide
from its history of colonialism, genocide, slavery, and racism . .
. . [T]his thought-provoking account will prove insightful for
all.”
—Library Journal
“This impassioned and well-documented history pulls no
punches.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz rightly argues that the United
States is not ‘a nation of immigrants’ but, more accurately, a
nation of colonizers. A must-read.”
—Nick Estes (Lakota), author of Our History Is the Future
“Not ‘A Nation of Immigrants’ challenges to the core one of the
most dominant narratives about the United States, as a country
founded by and welcoming for immigrants. Dunbar-Ortiz’s captivating
and accessible historical account forces a reckoning with the
various layers of the US imperialist project, from territorial
control to economic and political influence at the expense of Black
populations, migrants, and Indigenous peoples. This myth-shattering
book addresses one of the most pressing challenges of our time by
demonstrating the implications of white supremacy across time,
across groups and spaces, and the connections between them. If
there is hope for transformation, it is through the careful,
systematic work that this book exemplifies by examining the roots
of racism and structural inequality, and bringing forward
alternative narratives and movements. It is a must-read.”
—Alexandra Délano Alonso, author of México and Its Diaspora in the
United States: Policies of Emigration Since 1848
“This book is meticulously researched and written with eloquence
and passion. With it, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, one of our preeminent
radical historians, once again delivers a powerful and provocative
indictment of settler colonialism and white nationalism, which were
foundational in building this country. It could not be more timely.
A must-read history for our troubling present.”
—Barbara Ransby, author of Making All Black Lives Matter
“A compelling counter-narrative to America’s autobiography as the
making of a ‘nation of immigrants.’ Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz not only
chips away at this settler account but also provides the narrative
glue for an emancipatory movement beyond the settler-native
dichotomy.”
—Mahmood Mamdani, author of Neither Settler nor Native: The Making
and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities
“Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a one-woman wrecking ball against the
tower of lies erected by generations of official and television
historians—people who make a living glorifying slave traders and
exterminators of Native Americans.”
—Ishmael Reed
“With characteristic grit and brio, Dunbar-Ortiz demonstrates how
profoundly the settler-colonial history of the United States and
the ideology of ‘white nativism’ have shaped both immigration
policy and immigrant identity.”
—Mike Davis, author of Prisoners of the American Dream
“Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has produced a remarkable, engrossing, and
readable reexamination of US history.”
—Bill Fletcher Jr., trade unionist and author of “They’re
Bankrupting Us!” And Twenty Other Myths About Unions
“In this book, a precious gift drawn from an amazingly rich life
and a prodigious life of learning, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz urges us to
disavow the violence of the US settler nation-state, its discursive
erasures of native peoples and its material relations of
dispossession.”
—Gary Y. Okihiro, author of Third World Studies: Theorizing
Liberation
“This is a must-read to finally discard unquestioning settler
American liberalism and patriotism.”
—Harsha Walia, author of Border and Rule: Global Migration,
Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
“Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz methodically unravels the pernicious myth of
‘a nation of immigrants,’ standing in the way of collective
well-being on this continent and beyond.”
—Manu Karuka, author of Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations,
Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad
“Once again, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz demonstrates why she is one of
the foremost historical scholars we have today, and Not ‘A Nation
of Immigrants’ is her most crucial offering yet, opening new
insights on this country’s sordid history of systemic oppression,
exclusion, and erasure.”
—Tim Z. Hernandez, author of All They Will Call You
“Simply put, if you read this book and learn its lessons, you will
have to change everything you think about the history of the United
States and the terms we use to fight for justice.”
—Walter Johnson, author of The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis
and the Violent History of the United States
“From being deeply shaken and disturbed, to ultimately feeling
exhilarated and optimistic by Dunbar-Ortiz’s conclusion and ‘call
to arms,’ this is a paradigm-shifting work.”
—Patrick Higgins, anti-imperialist historian and activist
“You will never look at US history the same way after reading Not
‘A Nation of Immigrants.’”
—Aviva Chomsky, author of Undocumented: How Immigration Became
Illegal
“Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s sweeping revisionist history challenges
received versions of US origins, arguing convincingly that United
States society was the product of settler colonialism and slavery
rather than immigration. She demonstrates how the destruction of
Indigenous nations was airbrushed out of history, to be replaced by
the self-indigenization of both the earliest settlers and waves of
later immigrants. Building on her magisterial Indigenous Peoples’
History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz makes a significant
contribution to our understanding not only of the United States but
of settler colonialism as a mode of domination and elimination of
Indigenous peoples and cultures.”
—Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine
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