John Higham's "Strangers in the Land"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that John Higham, in his "Strangers in the Land", states that, although the United States prides itself on being a country open to newcomers and strangers, this diversity has created a great deal of conflict between the peoples who have made up and continue to make up the American nation. The author points out that the very fragility of American identity, given that America is a constructed nation upon soil that once belonged to an alien, native people, has made the characterization of what is American all the more important and the voices that give rise to nativism all the more strident. The paper relates that anti-immigrant sentiment was directly linked to unemployment, ultimately resulting in the passage of anti-immigration acts directed against "others" such as, for example, Chinese immigrants in 1924.

From the Paper:

"The book "Strangers in the Land" looks at the ways distinct groups have tried to claim and prove that they belong, by comparing themselves to other groups and deeming themselves to be favorable based on other group's perceived differences and un-American status. Higham does not characterize such behavior as mere prejudice. Rather he calls it "nativism", a particular and particularly noxious and dangerous form of prejudice. Nativism, according to the author, is distinct in its economic and political effects from personal prejudice directed at ethnic and racial groups. Nativism is anti-stranger, it says, you are not like us, you are not like one of us, our nation."

More papers on John Higham's "Strangers in the Land":

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• Analytical Essay # 5879 : "John Kenneth Galbraith's 'The Great Crash: 1929'"

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