Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America, Daniel Okrent

The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America, Daniel Okrent

Creator
Author
Summary
"From Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Okrent, the definitive and timely account of a forgotten dark chapter of American history. The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who provided the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history and the men who turned their 'science' into politics. Brandished by the upper-class Bostonians and New Yorkers--many of them progressives--who led the anti-immigration movement, eugenicist arguments ranking the presumed genetic virtue of various ethnic groups helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the United States for more than forty years. In the early 1890s, Henry Cabot Lodge and other Boston Brahmins began a three-decade campaign to close the immigration door. By 1921, the wide acceptance of eugenic doctrine enabled Vice President Calvin Coolidge to declare that 'biological laws' had proven the inferiority of southern and eastern Europeans; the restrictive law that remained U.S. policy until 1965 was enacted three years later. In his characteristic lively and authoritative style, Daniel Okrent brings to life the rich cast of characters: Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge's closest friend, who feared 'race suicide'; Charles Darwin's first cousin Francis Galton, the idiosyncratic polymath who gave life to eugenics; Madison Grant, the fabulously wealthy and profoundly bigoted founder of the Bronx Zoo; Grant's best friend, H. Fairfield Osborn, the aggressively anti-Semitic director of the American Museum of Natural History; Margaret Sanger, who saw eugenics as a sensible adjunct to her birth control campaign; Maxwell Perkins, the celebrated editor of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, who also published the leading proponents of 'scientific racism.' A work of history relevant for today, The Guarded Gate is an important, insightful tale that painstakingly connects the work of the American eugenicists to Nazi racial policies and shows how their beliefs found fertile soil in the minds of citizens and leaders both here and abroad."--Dust jacket
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
xvi, 478 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Contents
  • Prologue: Ellis Island, 1925 ; Part I: Enough! Enough! We want no more!. The future betterment of the human race ; Thrifty, capable Yankee blood ; The warfare of the cradle ; The kindled fire ; Short, sober, musical rapists ; To hell with Jews, Jesuits, and steamships!
  • Part II: The perfect weapons of science. Heaven-sent Madison Grant ; A carnival of exclusion ; The coming of the quota ; Science is our polestar ; 6,346,856 inferior immigrants ; Without foundation ; The train of consequences
  • Epilogue: Liberty Island, 1965
Isbn
9781476798059
Instance
Label
The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America
Title
The guarded gate
Title remainder
bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America
Statement of responsibility
Daniel Okrent
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"From Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Okrent, the definitive and timely account of a forgotten dark chapter of American history. The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who provided the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history and the men who turned their 'science' into politics. Brandished by the upper-class Bostonians and New Yorkers--many of them progressives--who led the anti-immigration movement, eugenicist arguments ranking the presumed genetic virtue of various ethnic groups helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the United States for more than forty years. In the early 1890s, Henry Cabot Lodge and other Boston Brahmins began a three-decade campaign to close the immigration door. By 1921, the wide acceptance of eugenic doctrine enabled Vice President Calvin Coolidge to declare that 'biological laws' had proven the inferiority of southern and eastern Europeans; the restrictive law that remained U.S. policy until 1965 was enacted three years later. In his characteristic lively and authoritative style, Daniel Okrent brings to life the rich cast of characters: Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge's closest friend, who feared 'race suicide'; Charles Darwin's first cousin Francis Galton, the idiosyncratic polymath who gave life to eugenics; Madison Grant, the fabulously wealthy and profoundly bigoted founder of the Bronx Zoo; Grant's best friend, H. Fairfield Osborn, the aggressively anti-Semitic director of the American Museum of Natural History; Margaret Sanger, who saw eugenics as a sensible adjunct to her birth control campaign; Maxwell Perkins, the celebrated editor of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, who also published the leading proponents of 'scientific racism.' A work of history relevant for today, The Guarded Gate is an important, insightful tale that painstakingly connects the work of the American eugenicists to Nazi racial policies and shows how their beliefs found fertile soil in the minds of citizens and leaders both here and abroad."--Dust jacket
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1948-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Okrent, Daniel
Dewey number
344.74304/8
Index
index present
LC call number
KF3832
LC item number
.O37 2019
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Eugenics
  • Sterilization (Birth control)
  • Discrimination in medical care
  • Human reproduction
  • Emigration and immigration law
Label
The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America, Daniel Okrent
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-451) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Prologue: Ellis Island, 1925 ; Part I: Enough! Enough! We want no more!. The future betterment of the human race ; Thrifty, capable Yankee blood ; The warfare of the cradle ; The kindled fire ; Short, sober, musical rapists ; To hell with Jews, Jesuits, and steamships! -- Part II: The perfect weapons of science. Heaven-sent Madison Grant ; A carnival of exclusion ; The coming of the quota ; Science is our polestar ; 6,346,856 inferior immigrants ; Without foundation ; The train of consequences -- Epilogue: Liberty Island, 1965
Control code
on1086502278
Dimensions
24 cm
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
xvi, 478 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Isbn
9781476798059
Lccn
2019006830
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1086502278
Label
The guarded gate : bigotry, eugenics, and the law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians, and other European immigrants out of America, Daniel Okrent
Publication
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-451) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Prologue: Ellis Island, 1925 ; Part I: Enough! Enough! We want no more!. The future betterment of the human race ; Thrifty, capable Yankee blood ; The warfare of the cradle ; The kindled fire ; Short, sober, musical rapists ; To hell with Jews, Jesuits, and steamships! -- Part II: The perfect weapons of science. Heaven-sent Madison Grant ; A carnival of exclusion ; The coming of the quota ; Science is our polestar ; 6,346,856 inferior immigrants ; Without foundation ; The train of consequences -- Epilogue: Liberty Island, 1965
Control code
on1086502278
Dimensions
24 cm
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
xvi, 478 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Isbn
9781476798059
Lccn
2019006830
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1086502278

Subject

Library Locations

    • Waubonsee: Aurora Downtown CampusBorrow it
      1st Floor 18 S. River St., Aurora, IL, 60506-4178, US
      41.7587304 -88.3172925

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Waubonsee Community College. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.
Processing Feedback ...