Table of Contents

Introduction
Breeders, Workers, and Mothers: The Beginning of the Literacy Test Debate
Parents and Progeny: The Dillingham Commission Report
Muscle, Miscegenation, and Manhood: The Literacy Test at the Height of the Progressive Era
Practical Aid and Sympathetic Understanding: Grace Abbott's Alternative to the Literacy Test
World War I and the Literacy Test
The Legacy of the Progressive Era Literacy Test Debate
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

Jeanne D. Petit's new monograph on Progressive Era debates over immigration restriction through the lens of the literary test is a well-researched, thoughtful, and provocative addition to the historiography. Petit is one of the first historians of this subject to focus on the intersection of gender and race as central, intertwined elements in the arguments for and against immigrant restriction.
*JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY*

The xenophobia exacerbated after the 9/11 attacks in America brings to sharp focus current immigration policies. . . The Men and Women We Want represents a timely contribution to the study of such policies by focusing on the debates about immigration restriction in America in the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. . . thus [the book] can become a point of reference in contemporary debates over immigration.
*EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES*

In her insightful new book. . . Jeanne Petit offers a thorough and detailed history of the immigration literacy test, from its genesis in the 1890s to its passage in 1917. [This book] is an essential contribution to the scholarship on the vital policy issue of the literacy test. . . sheds new light on the rise of restrictionist immigration policies in the United States.
*JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES*

Petit has added notably to the understanding of this historical controversy by elucidating the influences of sex and gender as well as the activities of female participants. . . [offers] innovative interpretations of early 20th century US reaction to its increasingly diverse popultation. Recommended.
*CHOICE*