One Mighty and Irresistible Tide

February 24, 2020
Journalist Yang chronicles four decades of American immigration legislation and reform in her sober and well-researched debut. Noting that between 1880 and WWI, only 1% of new arrivals were turned away from U.S. ports of entry, Yang explores how the rise of eugenics in the early 20th century helped anti-immigration activists to win passage of the 1924 Johnson–Reed Act, which set quotas drastically reducing immigration from southern and eastern Europe, “banned Asian immigration altogether,” and required prospective arrivals to obtain American visas before departing their countries of origin. The new law, according to Yang, cut the total number of arrivals by more than half. As the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany in the 1930s, quotas and “anti-Semitic prejudices” within the U.S. State Department shut the doors to many Jewish refugees. After WWII, President Harry Truman’s executive order allowing private charities to sponsor refugees “became central to the U.S. immigration system,” and in 1965, Sen. Ted Kennedy played a key role in the legislative effort to replace quotas with a cap system that prioritized family reunification. Yang’s comprehensive and easy-to-follow record of a crucial period in the evolution of U.S. immigration policy sheds light on the political, cultural, and historical considerations behind this contentious issue. Readers seeking insights into contemporary proposals to reform the system will find plenty in this lucid account.

Starred review from March 1, 2020
A history of the struggle for immigration law reform in 20th-century America. In this excellent debut, Yang--a deputy national editor at the New York Times who was part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the ties between Donald Trump and Russia--recounts the making of the historic Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened the door to Asian, Latin American, African, and Middle Eastern immigrants and "helped define America as a multicultural nation." Until then, becoming an American was tied to European ancestry, with entry barred to nearly all Asians. In a lively, smoothly flowing narrative based on archival research, the author describes the "racial paranoia" of the 1920s, marked by the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, the continued popularity of Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race, and the surge in eugenics. Anti-immigration sentiment led to a restrictive 1924 law, which deliberately cut immigration under quotas based on the number of foreign-born Americans in 1890. In ensuing decades, writes the author, restrictions continued, with concerns over communist infiltration by immigrants growing more important than the desire to control the race and nationality of Americans. By the 1950s, a "coalition of the powerful and powerless," led by Congressman Emanuel Celler and including families of interned Japanese Americans, argued for immigration in the more conducive climate engendered by increasing celebration of the immigrant past, the scholarship of historian Oscar Handlin (The Uprooted), and politicians' eagerness for urban ethnic votes. By then, even organized labor supported immigration. Throughout her important story, Yang highlights human and political drama, from the histrionics of racists to the political machinations of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson on behalf of the displaced and others. The author also reveals the roles of unsung heroes like White House aide Mike Feldman, who shaped JFK's message in A Nation of Immigrants. Yang illuminates the little-known, "transformative" 1965 law that spurred demographic changes expected to result in a nonwhite majority in America within a few decades. Critical in understanding today's immigration issues.

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Starred review from April 1, 2020
With immigration a continuous topic in nearly every national conversation, journalist and editor Yang's compelling history could not be more timely. Wielding tightly crafted prose, she looks back to the last time this subject was a political flashpoint, taking readers on a dramatic journey through the shifting sands of public opinion in mid-twentieth-century America. Yang highlights a cascade of politicians both famous and forgotten as she reveals how immigration was virtually shut down in the decades surrounding WWII. Yang maintains a rapid-fire narrative pace and high level of intrigue that will keep readers turning the pages as she recounts legislative battles and the behind-the-scenes machinations that Congress considers regular business. There are villains aplenty here and relatively few dedicated heroes and the author does not shy away from the ugliness of anti-immigration rhetoric which has, in more than one case, resulted in death. The combination of meticulous research and captivating writing creates a beautiful surprise; a dark history that gleams under the spotlight of unvarnished truthtelling. Expect a lot of reader requests and award attention for this significant title.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2020

New York Times editor Yang's book focuses on a period between two sweeping immigration reform laws that dramatically reshaped the nature of American society. The Immigration Act of 1924 ended a period of largely unrestricted entry into the United States by people from throughout the world, though largely from Europe. This ultimately created a system of racist laws that led to a shift in the country's racial makeup; preferring groups from northern and western Europe as opposed to Eastern Europe and Asia. In 1965, following World War II and the Cold War, Congress replaced quotas with new criteria that became the basis for our current system. Yang presents a series of portraits of individuals who shaped this social and political transition, and sought to control national laws. New York congressman Emanuel Celler, for example, was an outspoken advocate, opposing the Immigration Act of 1924 and sponsoring the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The book reveals the complexities of these policies during times of dramatically changing international conditions. VERDICT A clear, well-crafted historical overview of U.S. immigration, and the people who shaped it. Yang defines the issues these debates raised but never settled in a way that informs without overwhelming readers.--Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato

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