The Migration Factor in US History from the Civil War Era to the Present

This collection of studies aims to provide an overview of the intersection of migration and U.S. history—without claiming to be an exhaustive survey of this very broad field—and represents a well-researched, interesting, and detailed investigation of issues related to the correlation of migration and politics. The prevailing mode of analysis, which explores attitudes, mentalities, and how they shape the political arena, works well and represents a valid historiographical choice on the part of the author. The sections dealing with the United States within the chapter on global border walls in some ways complete the investigation into the migration factor in U.S. history: the Wall today harks back to the early, predominantly Southern fear of the non-Protestant immigrant, which over time has morphed into the “yellow man”, the Eastern European male, as well as the “Latino peril”, a notion with a centennial history but also a recent, unparalleled boom.

Gergely Romsics
Associate Professor and Senior Researcher
Institute of Historical Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest;
ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest