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America First, Immigrants Last: American Xenophobia Then and Now

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2019

Erika Lee*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: erikalee@umn.edu

Abstract

Global mass migration was one of the most defining features of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. But so was intense xenophobia. This article offers a new definition of xenophobia and examines how xenophobia helped to drive some of the most defining features of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, including progressive reform, white supremacy, the expanded capacity and power of the nation-state, and the growth of U.S. global power and influence. It draws a connection to contemporary America, where, under the Trump administration, xenophobia is transforming a wide range of public policies, legitimizing racism and white supremacy, and impacting U.S. foreign relations.

Type
SHGAPE Address
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2019

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References

Notes

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