Overview
The idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants is at the core of the American narrative. But in 1924, Congress instituted a system of ethnic quotas so stringent that it choked off large-scale immigration for decades, sharply curtailing arrivals from southern and eastern Europe and outright banning those from nearly all of Asia. In a riveting narrative filled with a fascinating cast of characters, from the indefatigable congressman Emanuel Celler and senator Herbert Lehman to the bull-headed Nevada senator Pat McCarran, Jia Lynn Yang recounts how lawmakers, activists, and presidents from Truman through LBJ worked relentlessly to abolish the 1924 law. Through a world war, a refugee crisis after the Holocaust, and a McCarthyist fever, a coalition of lawmakers and activists descended from Jewish, Irish, and Japanese immigrants fought to establish a new principle of equality in the American immigration system. Their crowning achievement, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, proved to be one of the most transformative laws in the country's history, opening the door to nonwhite migration at levels never seen before--and changing America in ways that those who debated it could hardly have imagined.
Full Product Details
Author: Jia Lynn Yang ,
Laural Merlington
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Imprint: HighBridge Audio
Edition: Library Edition
ISBN: 9781665116664
ISBN 10: 1665116668
Publication Date: 19 May 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Audio
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
Anyone who doesn't understand that we are a nation of immigrants should be given a copy of Yang's powerful and cogent look at immigrant strictures put in place in 1924 that were revoked by the 1965 Immigration and Equality Act. -- Washington Post Could not be more timely...[a] combination of meticulous research and captivating writing. -- Booklist (starred review) Excellent...Critical in understanding today's immigration issues. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Yang's account of the battles over immigration across four decades is a quasi-morality tale in which tolerant reformers triumph over bigoted obstructionists. -- New York Times Book Review
"""Anyone who doesn't understand that we are a nation of immigrants should be given a copy of Yang's powerful and cogent look at immigrant strictures put in place in 1924 that were revoked by the 1965 Immigration and Equality Act."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Could not be more timely...[a] combination of meticulous research and captivating writing."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"" ""Excellent...Critical in understanding today's immigration issues."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""Yang's account of the battles over immigration across four decades is a quasi-morality tale in which tolerant reformers triumph over bigoted obstructionists."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"""
Author Information
Jia Lynn Yang, a deputy national editor at the New York Times, was previously deputy national security editor at the Washington Post, where she was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Trump and Russia. Laural Merlington is an audiobook narrator with over two hundred titles to her credit and a winner of multiple Earphones Awards. An Audie Award nominee, she has also directed over one hundred audiobooks. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voice-over work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan.
