"Not a Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

"Not a Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many of us, regardless of party affiliation, proudly say that the United States is "a nation of immigrants." This pervasive myth emerged in the 1950s when John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator published an influential book, A Nation of Immigrants. Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz explains that the idea that we live in a land of opportunity -- founded and built by immigrants -- became a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s ' demands for decolonization, justice, reparations, and social equality.

This widely accepted and feel-good myth, which promotes a benign narrative of progress, is grossly inaccurate, and in this paradigm-shifting new book, Dubar-Ortiz shows how this dishonest and pernicious ideology serves to mask and diminish the U.S.'s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, and slavery, all of which we still grapple with today.

While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers from 1607 through the mid-nineteenth century to displace those who had been here since time immemorial. Still, others are descendants of those who were kidnapped, enslaved, and forced here against their will.

This eye-opening and transformative new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States will challenge what you believe about U.S. history. An essential text for the twenty-first century, Not "A Nation of Immigrants" charges that it's time to stop perpetuating simplistic and ahistorical fantasies and embrace the true, complex, and often sobering history of these United States.

Beacon Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2021