The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America

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Book

The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America / Daniel Okrent.

Okrent, Daniel, 1948- (author.).

Summary:

Eugenicist arguments ranking the presumed genetic virtue of various ethnic groups helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the United States for more than forty years. By 1921 Vice President Calvin Coolidge declared that 'biological laws' had proven the inferiority of southern and eastern Europeans; the restrictive law that remained U.S. policy until 1965 was enacted three years later. Okrent connects the work of the American eugenicists to Nazi racial policies and shows how their beliefs found fertile soil in the minds of citizens and leaders both here and abroad. -- adapted from jacket

Record details

ISBN: 9781476798035
ISBN: 1476798036
ISBN: 9781476798059
ISBN: 1476798052
Physical Description: xvi, 478 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2019.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-451) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: A note from (and about) the author -- Prologue: Ellis Island, 1925 -- Part I: Enough! Enough! We want no more!. The future betterment of the human race ; Thrifty, capable Yankee blood ; The warfare of the cradle ; The kindled fire ; Short, sober, musical rapists ; To hell with Jews, Jesuits, and steamships! -- Part II: The perfect weapons of science. Heaven-sent Madison Grant ; A carnival of exclusion ; The coming of the quota ; Science is our polestar ; 6,346,856 inferior immigrants ; Without foundation ; The train of consequences -- Epilogue: Liberty Island, 1965.