True Faith and Allegiance (ebook)

Argumento de True Faith and Allegiance (ebook)

True Faith and Allegiance is a provocative account of nationalism and the politics of turning immigrants into citizens and Americans. Noah Pickus offers an alternative to the wild swings between emotionally fraught positions on immigration and citizenship of the past two decades. Drawing on political theory, history, and law, he argues for a renewed civic nationalism that melds principles and peoplehood.

This tradition of civic nationalism held sway at America's founding and in the Progressive Era. Pickus explores how, from James Madison to Teddy Roosevelt, its proponents sought to combine reason and reverence and to balance inclusion and exclusion. He takes us through controversies over citizenship for blacks and the rights of aliens at the nation's founding, examines the interplay of ideas and institutions in the Americanization movement in the 1910s and 1920s, and charts how both left and right promoted a policy of neglect toward immigrants and toward citizenship in the second half of the twentieth century.

True Faith and Allegiance shows that contemporary debates over a range of immigration and citizenship policies cannot be resolved by appeals to fixed notions of creed or culture, but require a supple civic nationalism that bridges the gap between immigrants' needs and American principles and practices. It is critical reading for scholars, policy makers, and all who care about immigrants and about America.

"[This book] succeeds in provoking us to think harder about the appropriate role of government in the process of making Americans out of immigrants. And for that, scholars and citizens are in Pickus's debt."--Richard J. Ellis, American Historical Review

"Pickus should be applauded for his centrist appeal to build bridges between natives and immigrants through English instruction and civics classes. Pickus' interpretation of recent developments in American immigration politics is also impeccable and a useful update to the current literature. It will strengthen the hand of those who dissent from the prevailing multicultural ethos of the universities, but will also challenge some of the more popular quick fixes of Congressional policy-makers. Put simply, this well-written book is a must-read for scholars of American national identity and immigration."--Eric Kaufman, Nations and Nationalism

"This book will be an important and original contribution to America's ongoing debate over immigration. It lays claim to some much-needed middle ground in a policy domain that is far too polarized. Ranging over political theory, law, and history, Noah Pickus wades into the most pressing public policy debates of our era. He manages to produce a work of policy analysis and political theory at the same time. The topic of citizenship has called out for such a treatment. Now it has one."--Peter Skerry, Boston College and the Brookings Institution, author of Counting on the Census? Race, Group, Identity, and the Evasion of Politics

"Noah Pickus offers a provocative account of American nationalism and the politics of immigrant incorporation. Claiming a centrist tradition that defies the familiar extremes on this issue, True Faith and Allegiance offers a sophisticated set of arguments that are sure to spark debate among scholars and political activists. It also represents an effective blending of political theory and policy analysis."--Daniel Tichenor, Rutgers University, author of Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America

"Noah Pickus rightly declares that it is time to get serious about assimilation in his insightful new book."--John Fonte, New York Post

"By carefully exploring the nuances of competing views of naturalization, Noah Pickus can help us all think more effectively about one of the pressing concerns of our time."--Andrew L. Aoki, Political Science Quarterly

"In True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism, Noah Pickus presents a learned and balanced historical review of American political debates about immigration and citizenship from the 1780s to present."--Camille Pecastaing, The American Interest0Preface ix
Introduction 1
Naturalization and Nationhood in Three Eras 6
Citizenship in Theory and Practice 11

Chapter One: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Nation's Founding 15
Diversity and Nationhood 16
Immigration and Citizenship 22
"Men Who Can Shake Off Their Attachments to Their Own Country" 25
America's Civic Character 29

Chapter Two: Alienage and Nationalism in the Early Republic 34
Partisan and Ideological Divisions 35
"The Constitution Was Made for Citizens, Not Aliens" 37
The Rights of Aliens, Citizens, and States 42
Marshall, Madison, and Moderate Civic Nationalism 47

Chapter Three: The Free White Clause of 1790 52
Why White? 53
"We Have the Wolf by the Ears": Obstacles to Integration 56
Emancipation without Citizenship 58
Civic Nationalism and the Claims of History 61

Chapter Four: Americanization and Pluralism in the Progressive Era 64
Citizenship and Nativism, 1830-1911 65
Americanization, Progressivism, and John Dewey's International Nationalism 71
Randolph Bourne, Jane Addams, and the Practice of Pluralism 76

Chapter Five: Nationalism in the Progressive Era 85
Roosevelt's New Nationalism 86
Naturalization and Constitutional Attachment 90
Education for Citizenship 96
"We Mutually Pledge to Each Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor": Frances Kellor and the National Americanization Committee 100

Chapter Six: World War I and the Turn to Coercion 107
Tightening the Boundaries of Citizenship 108
Postwar Americanization and the Specter of Separatism 112
The Peril and the Promise of Civic Nationalism 118

Chapter Seven: Immigration and Citizenship at Century's End 124
From New Deal Nationalism to Nationality as a Human Right 125
"Name One Benefit of Being a Citizen of the United States": Amnesty and the New Naturalization Process 131
Alien Rights and Minority Representation 136
The Return of the Nation 140

Chapter Eight: A New Civic Nationalism 147
Bourneian and Rooseveltian Civic Nationalism 148
Alternatives to Civic Nationalism 153
The Evasion of Politics and the Madisonian Moment 160
Tolerance, Neglect, and Governance by Proposition 164

Epilogue 171
Immigration and Immigrant Policy 173
What Naturalization Can Do 175
Beyond Naturalization 178
Dual Citizenship and Global Linkages 181

Notes 185
Index 241