Books by Mae M. Ngai
“Impossible Subjects is a classic text, it was the first book that really demonstrated the relationship between racist ideas and immigration restrictions in the United States. She shows that notions of citizenship and belonging are not things that are fixed, but rather are created through media, through discourses in a society, and then get put in place through laws. She argues that the laws both reflect the views of a particular time, but then also create and bring into being the exclusions and categories of white and nonwhite that were inchoate before they were put into law. The book focuses on the early period of US immigration law, but the histories that she is tracing from the 1920s are still affecting us today. That 1924 law gets revised in 1952, and then again in 1965. That is still the immigration law that we have in the United States.” Read more...
The best books on Immigration and Race
Reece Jones, Social Scientist
Interviews where books by Mae M. Ngai were recommended
-
1
Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move
by Nanjala Nyabola -
2
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move
by Sonia Shah -
3
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
by Mae M. Ngai -
4
Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
by Harsha Walia -
5
Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda
by Jean Guerrero
The best books on Immigration and Race, recommended by Reece Jones
The best books on Immigration and Race, recommended by Reece Jones
In a series of books, Reece Jones, Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii, has explored the impact of borders on our lives. In his latest book, White Borders, he delves into the history of immigration and race in the United States, and explains the connection between the two. Here, he recommends the best books he’s read on the topic and explains why he’s not optimistic about the future.
-
1
Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race
by Matthew Frye Jacobson -
2
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
by Mae M. Ngai -
3
Between Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America
by Eiichiro Azuma -
4
Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity
by David G. Gutiérrez -
5
Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994
by María Cristina García
The best books on Immigration, recommended by Ana Minian
The best books on Immigration, recommended by Ana Minian
How did the concept of United States immigration being a ‘melting pot’ of diverse nationalities come to be? In this interview, Stanford historian Ana Raquel Minian explores America’s complex, highly racialized history of immigration and recommends five of the books on the subject that have most influenced her.
-
1
Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History
by Rogers M. Smith -
2
At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943
by Erika Lee -
3
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
by Mae M. Ngai -
4
Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement
by Patricia Sullivan -
5
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
The best books on Race and the Law, recommended by Kenneth W. Mack
The best books on Race and the Law, recommended by Kenneth W. Mack
Kenneth W. Mack, the Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard University, discusses the warring ideals of egalitarianism and exclusion at the heart of US politics and law, from the founding of the nation up to the present day.
