America for Americans

The definitive history of American xenophobia 

"A sweeping record of xenophobia in the U.S., highlighting the different ways minority groups have been humiliated, discriminated against and even deported."—Time

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational hostility toward immigrants has always been a defining feature of our nation. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their “strange and foreign ways.” Americans’ anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, Mexicans deported, and Muslims banned.

Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.