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Digital Group. In a book of deep and telling ironies, Peter
Schrag provides essential background for understanding the
fractious debate over immigration. Covering the earliest days of
the Republic to current events, Schrag sets the modern
immigration controversy within the context of three centuries of
debate over the same questions about who exactly is fit for
citizenship. He finds that nativism has long colored our
national history, and that the fear—and loathing—of newcomers
has provided one of the faultlines of American cultural and
political life. Schrag describes the eerie similarities between
the race-based arguments for restricting