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The Resource America classifies the immigrants : from Ellis Island to the 2020 census, Joel Perlmann

America classifies the immigrants : from Ellis Island to the 2020 census, Joel Perlmann

Creator
Author
Summary
When more than twenty million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1920, the government attempted to classify them according to prevailing ideas about race and nationality. But this proved hard to do. Ideas about racial or national difference were slippery, contested, and yet consequential--were "Hebrews" a "race," a "religion," or a "people"? As Joel Perlmann shows, a self-appointed pair of officials created the government's 1897 List of Races and Peoples, which shaped exclusionary immigration laws, the wording of the U.S. Census, and federal studies that informed social policy. Its categories served to maintain old divisions and establish new ones. Across the five decades ending in the 1920s, American immigration policy built increasingly upon the belief that some groups of immigrants were desirable, others not. Perlmann traces how the debates over this policy institutionalized race distinctions--between whites and nonwhites, but also among whites--in immigration laws that lasted four decades. Despite a gradual shift among social scientists from "race" to "ethnic group" after the 1920s, the diffusion of this key concept among government officials and the public remained limited until the end of the 1960s. Taking up dramatic changes to racial and ethnic classification since then, America Classifies the Immigrants concentrates on three crucial reforms to the American Census: the introduction of Hispanic origin and ancestry (1980), the recognition of mixed racial origins (2000), and a rethinking of the connections between race and ethnic group (proposed for 2020).--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
viii, 451 pages
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Contents
  • Creating and refining the list, 1898-1906
  • Immigration--especially European--through the lens of race
  • First struggles over the list: the Jewish challenges and the federal defense, 1899-1903
  • The United States Immigration Commission, 1907-1911
  • Urging the list on the U.S. Census Bureau, 1908-1910
  • The Census Bureau goes its own way: race, nationality, mother tongue, 1910-1916
  • The second quota act, 1924
  • Immigration law for white races and others: three episodes
  • From "race" to "ethnic group": organizing concepts in American studies of immigrants, to 1964-- From social science to the federal bureaucracy? Limited diffusion of the "ethnic group" concept through the early 1950s
  • Race and the immigrant in federal statistics after 1965
Isbn
9780674425057
Instance
Label
America classifies the immigrants : from Ellis Island to the 2020 census
Title
America classifies the immigrants
Title remainder
from Ellis Island to the 2020 census
Statement of responsibility
Joel Perlmann
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
When more than twenty million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1920, the government attempted to classify them according to prevailing ideas about race and nationality. But this proved hard to do. Ideas about racial or national difference were slippery, contested, and yet consequential--were "Hebrews" a "race," a "religion," or a "people"? As Joel Perlmann shows, a self-appointed pair of officials created the government's 1897 List of Races and Peoples, which shaped exclusionary immigration laws, the wording of the U.S. Census, and federal studies that informed social policy. Its categories served to maintain old divisions and establish new ones. Across the five decades ending in the 1920s, American immigration policy built increasingly upon the belief that some groups of immigrants were desirable, others not. Perlmann traces how the debates over this policy institutionalized race distinctions--between whites and nonwhites, but also among whites--in immigration laws that lasted four decades. Despite a gradual shift among social scientists from "race" to "ethnic group" after the 1920s, the diffusion of this key concept among government officials and the public remained limited until the end of the 1960s. Taking up dramatic changes to racial and ethnic classification since then, America Classifies the Immigrants concentrates on three crucial reforms to the American Census: the introduction of Hispanic origin and ancestry (1980), the recognition of mixed racial origins (2000), and a rethinking of the connections between race and ethnic group (proposed for 2020).--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
MH/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Perlmann, Joel
Dewey number
325.73
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
JV6483
LC item number
.P45 2018
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • United States
  • United States
  • Race
  • Ethnic groups
  • Race
  • Ethnic groups
  • United States
Label
America classifies the immigrants : from Ellis Island to the 2020 census, Joel Perlmann
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references 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
Creating and refining the list, 1898-1906 -- Immigration--especially European--through the lens of race -- First struggles over the list: the Jewish challenges and the federal defense, 1899-1903 -- The United States Immigration Commission, 1907-1911 -- Urging the list on the U.S. Census Bureau, 1908-1910 -- The Census Bureau goes its own way: race, nationality, mother tongue, 1910-1916 -- The second quota act, 1924 -- Immigration law for white races and others: three episodes -- From "race" to "ethnic group": organizing concepts in American studies of immigrants, to 1964-- From social science to the federal bureaucracy? Limited diffusion of the "ethnic group" concept through the early 1950s -- Race and the immigrant in federal statistics after 1965
Control code
on1002821823
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
viii, 451 pages
Isbn
9780674425057
Lccn
2017037497
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other control number
40028019901
Other physical details
illustration
Stock number
14774837
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780674425057
  • (OCoLC)1002821823
Label
America classifies the immigrants : from Ellis Island to the 2020 census, Joel Perlmann
Publication
Copyright
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references 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
Creating and refining the list, 1898-1906 -- Immigration--especially European--through the lens of race -- First struggles over the list: the Jewish challenges and the federal defense, 1899-1903 -- The United States Immigration Commission, 1907-1911 -- Urging the list on the U.S. Census Bureau, 1908-1910 -- The Census Bureau goes its own way: race, nationality, mother tongue, 1910-1916 -- The second quota act, 1924 -- Immigration law for white races and others: three episodes -- From "race" to "ethnic group": organizing concepts in American studies of immigrants, to 1964-- From social science to the federal bureaucracy? Limited diffusion of the "ethnic group" concept through the early 1950s -- Race and the immigrant in federal statistics after 1965
Control code
on1002821823
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
viii, 451 pages
Isbn
9780674425057
Lccn
2017037497
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other control number
40028019901
Other physical details
illustration
Stock number
14774837
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780674425057
  • (OCoLC)1002821823

Subject

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