True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism

About the Book

True Faith and Allegiance is a provocative account of nationalism and the politics of turning immigrants into citizens and Americans. Noah Pickus offers an alternative to the wild swings between emotionally fraught positions on immigration and citizenship of the past two decades. Drawing on political theory, history, and law, he argues for a renewed civic nationalism that melds principles and peoplehood. This tradition of civic nationalism held sway at America's founding and in the Progressive Era. Pickus explores how, from James Madison to Teddy Roosevelt, its proponents sought to combine reason and reverence and to balance inclusion and exclusion. He takes us through controversies over citizenship for blacks and the rights of aliens at the nation's founding, examines the interplay of ideas and institutions in the Americanization movement in the 1910s and 1920s, and charts how both left and right promoted a policy of neglect toward immigrants and toward citizenship in the second half of the twentieth century. True Faith and Allegiance shows that contemporary debates over a range of immigration and citizenship policies cannot be resolved by appeals to fixed notions of creed or culture, but require a supple civic nationalism that bridges the gap between immigrants' needs and American principles and practices. It is critical reading for scholars, policy makers, and all who care about immigrants and about America.

Table of Contents:
Preface ix Introduction 1 Naturalization and Nationhood in Three Eras 6 Citizenship in Theory and Practice 11 Chapter One: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Nation's Founding 15 Diversity and Nationhood 16 Immigration and Citizenship 22 "Men Who Can Shake Off Their Attachments to Their Own Country" 25 America's Civic Character 29 Chapter Two: Alienage and Nationalism in the Early Republic 34 Partisan and Ideological Divisions 35 "The Constitution Was Made for Citizens, Not Aliens" 37 The Rights of Aliens, Citizens, and States 42 Marshall, Madison, and Moderate Civic Nationalism 47 Chapter Three: The Free White Clause of 1790 52 Why White? 53 "We Have the Wolf by the Ears": Obstacles to Integration 56 Emancipation without Citizenship 58 Civic Nationalism and the Claims of History 61 Chapter Four: Americanization and Pluralism in the Progressive Era 64 Citizenship and Nativism, 1830-1911 65 Americanization, Progressivism, and John Dewey's International Nationalism 71 Randolph Bourne, Jane Addams, and the Practice of Pluralism 76 Chapter Five: Nationalism in the Progressive Era 85 Roosevelt's New Nationalism 86 Naturalization and Constitutional Attachment 90 Education for Citizenship 96 "We Mutually Pledge to Each Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor": Frances Kellor and the National Americanization Committee 100 Chapter Six: World War I and the Turn to Coercion 107 Tightening the Boundaries of Citizenship 108 Postwar Americanization and the Specter of Separatism 112 The Peril and the Promise of Civic Nationalism 118 Chapter Seven: Immigration and Citizenship at Century's End 124 From New Deal Nationalism to Nationality as a Human Right 125 "Name One Benefit of Being a Citizen of the United States": Amnesty and the New Naturalization Process 131 Alien Rights and Minority Representation 136 The Return of the Nation 140 Chapter Eight: A New Civic Nationalism 147 Bourneian and Rooseveltian Civic Nationalism 148 Alternatives to Civic Nationalism 153 The Evasion of Politics and the Madisonian Moment 160 Tolerance, Neglect, and Governance by Proposition 164 Epilogue 171 Immigration and Immigrant Policy 173 What Naturalization Can Do 175 Beyond Naturalization 178 Dual Citizenship and Global Linkages 181 Notes 185 Index 241

About the Author :

Noah Pickus is Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He teaches at Sanford Institute of Public Policy and is the editor of Immigration and Citizenship in the 21st Century.

Review :
"Pickus should be applauded for his centrist appeal to build bridges between natives and immigrants through English instruction and civics classes. Pickus' interpretation of recent developments in American immigration politics is also impeccable and a useful update to the current literature. It will strengthen the hand of those who dissent from the prevailing multicultural ethos of the universities, but will also challenge some of the more popular quick fixes of Congressional policy-makers. Put simply, this well-written book is a must-read for scholars of American national identity and immigration."--Eric Kaufman, Nations and Nationalism "Noah Pickus rightly declares that it is time to get serious about assimilation in his insightful new book."--John Fonte, New York Post "By carefully exploring the nuances of competing views of naturalization, Noah Pickus can help us all think more effectively about one of the pressing concerns of our time."--Andrew L. Aoki, Political Science Quarterly "[This book] succeeds in provoking us to think harder about the appropriate role of government in the process of making Americans out of immigrants. And for that, scholars and citizens are in Pickus's debt."--Richard J. Ellis, American Historical Review "In True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism, Noah Pickus presents a learned and balanced historical review of American political debates about immigration and citizenship from the 1780s to present."--Camille Pecastaing, The American Interest