Reviews

"Making Americans" should be required reading for assimilationists, multiculturalist and the undecided--on both sides of the Atlantic...[King] breaks new ground in synthesising the arguments of eugenicists, racists and proponents of immigration restriction during the 1920s and relating them to contemporary debates over multiculturalism and group-interest politics.--John White "Times Higher Education Supplement "

[King's] deeply researched and closely reasoned book has ambitions well beyond its immediate subject. He isn't much concerned with the motives or circumstances that prompted these people to migrate in the first place; and he is only secondarily concerned with what happened to them once they arrived. His principal focus is on the reception that American society extended to immigrants and prospective immigrants, and with what that reception shows about American self-perceptions and national identity..."Making Americans" is part history, part cultural commentary, part policy prescription.--David Kennedy "London Review of Books "

Americans have long been conditioned to believe themselves 'a nation of immigrants.' The reality, as King's insightful analysis makes clear, is that cherished images of 'open doors' and 'melting pots' fly in the face of U.S. immigration and naturalization laws. From the 1880s through the mid-1960s, the U.S. government used racial quotas, eugenic categories, and national origins to exclude, restrict, and stigmatize...King brings an interesting British perspective to current American debates. Building on the work of earlier scholars, he successfully links early 20th-century battles between assimilationists and cultural pluralists to contemporary struggles over civil rights and multiculturalism. In each instance, readers are reminded that immigration policy remains a powerful political tool.--E. M. Tobin"Choice" (12/01/2000)

Desmond King, professor of politics and fellow at St. John's College, University of Oxford, has written an excellent book on twentieth-century immigration to the United States, focusing on the debates surrounding policy and how these discussions related to concepts of American democracy. King's book is based on careful and deep research. The author has utilized the secondary literature well and has done an impressive job of digging through congressional sources and the writings of Americans who discussed immigration and its relation to definitions of Americanism.--David M. Reimers "The North Carolina Historical Review "

King has written a subtle analysis of the construction of American identity in the 20th century...Highly recommended.--Anthony O. Edwards "Library Journal "

Minority rights are protected--and delineated--precisely because majorities rule; and whatever the degree of tolerance, lines will be drawn eventually...and some cultural imperatives will not be tolerated...Decisions will be made--increasingly in a world ever more culturally mobile--and "Making Americans" is a salutary warning about the force of illegitimate adjudication.--Michael Anderson "Times Literary Supplement "

Making Americans should be required reading for assimilationists, multiculturalist and the undecided--on both sides of the Atlantic...[King] breaks new ground in synthesising the arguments of eugenicists, racists and proponents of immigration restriction during the 1920s and relating them to contemporary debates over multiculturalism and group-interest politics.

ÝKing's¨ deeply researched and closely reasoned book has ambitions well beyond its immediate subject. He isn't much concerned with the motives or circumstances that prompted these people to migrate in the first place; and he is only secondarily concerned with what happened to them once they arrived. His principal focus is on the reception that American society extended to immigrants and prospective immigrants, and with what that reception shows about American self-perceptions and national identity..."Making Americans" is part history, part cultural commentary, part policy prescription. -- David Kennedy "London Review of Books"