America for Americans

A History of Xenophobia in the United States

By: Erika Lee

Narrated by: Shayna Small

This definitive history of American xenophobia is "essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist)

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In America for Americans, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported.

Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing us to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. Now updated with an afterword reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged xenophobia, America for Americans is an urgent spur to action for any concerned citizen.

Critic reviews

"This sweeping account draws parallels between Benjamin Franklin's worry over 'swarthy' Germans 'herding together' in the eighteenth century and Donald Trump's race-baiting today. Xenophobia, Lee argues, has been an indelible 'American tradition,' deployed to social and political ends since the country's founding. A manifesto as much as a history, the book shows how every large immigrant group since Franklin's time-Irish, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern-was 'scripted' by populist demagogues as alien and threatening."—New Yorker

"Including everything from Chinese Exclusion to recent travel bans, America for Americans exposes the folly in arguments that position the U.S. as an eternally anti-racist society."—Bustle

"She persuasively expresses that current hostilities over national borders are no exception to the nation's history. This clearly organized and lucidly written book should be read by a wide audience."—Publishers Weekly

"A carefully constructed history of wide interest to students of American politics."—Kirkus

"Erika Lee wants us to remember that xenophobia has always been a troubling part of the American narrative. Lee offers a sweeping record of xenophobia in the U.S., highlighting the different ways minority groups have been humiliated, discriminated against and even deported."—Time

"As Erika Lee brilliantly shows, xenophobia has forever been an integral part of American racism. Forcing us to confront this history as we confront its present, America for Americans is essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society."—Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

"America for Americans is unflinching and powerful. Through extensive research and crystal clear prose, Erika Lee has masterfully tracked the phenomenon of xenophobia and its devastating effects on this nation's democracy and its people. Spurred on by unscrupulous politicians and key segments of the press, the cadence of fear, racism, and policy violence has rained down on immigrants since the colonial period and wreaked havoc on America's laws and claims of moral and human rights leadership. This is a must-read for all who need and want to understand how the 'leader of the free world' came to ban a religion, violate asylum laws, and lock babies in cages."—Carol Anderson, New York Times-bestselling author of White Rage

Thorough history of immigration in U.S.

Thoroughly researched and systematically presented. Constitutes an important but neglected history of the little known xenophobia that helps to explain the current irrational and immoral behavior of many of today's misguided political sycophants.

Fantastic narrative and resource; flawed narration

This indispensable work helps us understand some of our society’s basest moments and prepares us for the sick sad next ones. The Audible experience is marred by mispronunciations of common nouns (it’s “gubernatorial,” not “gubernational”) and names (Jacob Javits pronounced his J’s just the way they look).

Phenomenal Read

Erika Lee does it again with a well written, thoughtful book about a history we often ignore or are unaware of. This book provides the answers to the questions we ask today about the USA.

Essential to Understanding America

Topics covered here are essential to understanding how xenophic rhetoric is used in politics today.