Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925

by John Higham

Nativism has been hard for historians to define. The word is distinctively American, a product of a specific chain of events in eastern American cities in the late 1830's and early 1840's. Yet it has a meaning so broad and indefinite that sometimes it seems to refer to a perennial human experience. Does nativism consist only of a particular complex of attitudes dominant in the anti-foreign crusade of the mid-nineteenth century? Or does it extend to every occasion when native inhabitants of a country turn their faces or raise their hands against strangers in their midst? What is nativism?

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, American, Grad School

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

John William Higham (26 October 1920 - 26 July 2003) was an American historian, scholar of American culture and specialist on issues of ethnicity.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, Higham earned his undergraduate history degree from Johns Hopkins in 1941 and received a master's degree from Yale University in 1942. In World War II, he served with the historical division of the Army Air Corps in Italy. He married psychologist Eileen Moss Higham in 1948.

After serving as assistant editor of The American Mercury, he earned a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1949. He taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, Rutgers University, Columbia University and the University of Michigan before returning to Johns Hopkins in 1971.

He is noted for having described anti-Catholicism in the United States as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history".

Higham died of a cerebral aneurysm in Baltimore.

Reviews

[David Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

By 1910 the census found that one in three Americans was foreign born. John Higham’s Strangers in the Land, first published in 1955, traces the resulting backlash of nativism in America during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, culminating in the passage of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1921 which closed America’s doors to European immigrants for the first time in its history. Higham conceptualizes nativism as an ideology adopted, resisted or spread by different groups. He contends that the Civil War “completed the ruin of organized nativism by absorbing xenophobes and immigrants in a common cause. Now the foreigner had a new prestige; he was a comerade-in-arms. The clash that alienated sections reconciled their component nationalities.” Intolerance intensified in the 1870s and 1880s however as the growing political clout of the Irish in eastern cities was met by an up swell of anti-Catholicism. A separate strain of intolerance based on ethnicity emanated from labor unions, whose organizing was undercut by temporary immigrant workers, leading to rhetoric from Congressional allies that Italian and Hungarian workers were “so many cattle, large numbers of degraded, ignorant, brutal . . . foreign serfs” brought in by monopolists to displace citizens. Fears of political radicalism amid the great labor disturbances of the 1880s and 1890s gave an even more threatening aspect to newcomers from southern and eastern Europe. Unrest created increased political anxiety among natives, economic competition stiffened during the frequent economic downturns, and it became increasingly clear that great numbers of immigrants were coming to stay permanently. Higham contends that the resulting social anxiety underwrote a strengthening wave of nativist nationalism as a unifying response to worrying social divisions. In the first decade of the twentieth century Southern congressmen shifted from favoring open immigration to restrictions, a move prompted by sectional reconciliation following the Spanish-American War. The South was “rejoining the Union and celebrating its own role as defender of race purity for the nation at large.” Scientific racism tied to imperialism, and Southern exultation of Anglo-Saxon purity, combined with anti-Catholic and anti-Radical elements to set the stage for withering hostility and harassment. The 1920s saw both the passage of the Restriction Act and the flowering of the Ku Klux Klan in northern cities.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old-fashioned history book that tries to tell a story about the different twists and turns in the anti-immigrant movement in Progressive America.

Higham finds three main threads that wind all through the period's anti-immigrant thought: namely, the anti-radical, the anti-Catholic, and the racist. Throughout the book, all three gain ascendancy and then retreat a bewildering number of times. For instance, the anti-radical movement explodes temporarily after the American-born (but foreign-sounding) anarchist Leon Czolgalz assassinated President McKinley in 1901, leading to the 1903 Immigration Act, the first to restrict immigration by political belief (specifically, anybody who advocated the violent overthrow of the government). But by 1910 this concern gave way to a new anti-Catholic hysteria, inspired by politicians like the Georgian ex-Populist Tom Watson, whose "Watson's magazine" warned that popish armies were literally waiting in boats to invade American shores. Eventually upper-class theorists like Madison Grant combined with lower-class movements like the KKK to bring racist thought to the fore, and this kind of thinking helped Congress, almost unanimously, pass the 1924 Immigration Act, barring immigrants according to their "national origin."

Higham's dissection of who supported and who opposed immigration restriction is probably the most interesting part of the book. He shows that Southern and Western states were almost universally FOR immigration in the 1890s (they almost unanimously opposed the 1898 bill restricting immigrants to only those who could pass a literacy test). States like South Carolina and Wisconsin even set up state-funded immigrant bureaus to attract foreigners to their lands. It was the still patrician-dominated East that was concerned by foreign hordes, but by the 1920s they had reversed positions, and the few Congressional opponents of restriction were located around Eastern cities like New York and Boston, while the South and West (both of which, paradoxically, had almost no European immigrants) were the staunchest advocates of restriction.

Higham also shows that although labor and business often played out their typical roles of opposing and supporting immigration, respectively, this too changed over time. The National Board of Trade was so concerned about radical foreigners in 1903 that it supported a strict literacy test, but just one year later they switched positions in the face of tightening labor markets and rising wages. The AFL, led by the Jewish, English-born Samuel Gompers, also vacillated on immigration, since so many of its members came from overseas. Gompers, surprisingly, argued for more restriction, but a 1891 convention of the union stated that restrictions were tight enough as they were. By 1893, however, in face of an economic panic, they too switched as wages were driven downward.

Although the book suffers from the complete lack of acknowledgement of the problems of Asian immigration (the first general immigration bill and the first Chinese Exclusion Act both passed in 1882, Higham says there was no connection, but that would be surprising) and from some disorganization, but this is a solid piece of research that shows how extreme much of the anti-immigration rhetoric was at the time, and how it ultimately bore fruit in concrete legislation.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's odd, I am very interested in this book and I get a lot out of it when I am just flipping through it, or using bits and pieces of it for paper writing material. It's a good source. Higham was an excellent historian, and this is a very important and sometimes fascinating topic. But for some reason I can't just sit down and read this thing through to the end. I have now read a few chapters from the middle, and a few from the start, but it just isn't holding my attention through to the end. Partly I think this is because, while reading it, I've been thinking that I want to learn more about the Know-Nothing party and ITS nativism, which comes before the date of 1860 that Higham has decided to start with. I also would like to know more about racial nativism, such as west coast nativist movements against Asians, and this is another area that Higham chooses to mostly ignore. He has a reason, and that's fine. This book is more about anti-Catholic and they-are-all-Socialist-agitators nativism. I just find that a little less interesting than some of the stuff Higham left out.
But really, very important book to have around. An element of American history that every American should learn something about.

[Tarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're at all interested in issues of immigration, race, nationalism, and the rise of nativism in America (and, come on, who ISN'T?!), then this is the standard-bearer to read. It focuses in on reconstruction through turn-of-the-century America, but the history as Higham reveals it is more than relevant to our current national conversations (What does it mean to be white in America? What does it mean to be American? What's the role of immigration/immigrants in the definition of America/n, etc.). The book is dated, certainly, but if you want to do any serious work or learning in this area, it's a must-read.

[Lauren Hiebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a timely reading in light of today’s anti-immigrant attitudes. Higham cites racism, fear of Catholics, and fear of radicals as the underlying reasons for Nativism from 1860 - 1925. He points out that in times of crisis nativists emerged and dominated the political agenda but when the economy was stronger the attitudes subsided. However, racism never went away, it was always there. In later years politicians in the post-WWII and post-9/11 eras will use it for their own political agenda. Today it is being used to further an America First, anti-immigrant agenda by a decisive, polarizing president to promote his conservative, pro-wealthy agenda.

[Caitlin]

not bad for a history book written in 1955

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid history. Always the same names spreading anti-national malevolence.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an extremely comprehensive overview of the development of nativist impulses and ideologies in the United States between the Civil War and the Great Depression. What Higham does is think about the building of racism, nativism, and nationalism as layers of a larger argument about America's relationship to its "foreign" elements, shifting with other historical moments such as wartime, economic impoverishment and prosperity, impulses of progressivism and conservatism, and new forms of technological innovation and cultural modernity. He illustrates nativism as a "habit of mind" that "mirrors national anxieties," but also something that manifests in concrete policy: the 1790s resulted the Alien Acts, the 1850s resulted in the breakdown of the party system; from 1886-1896 it imagined social mores as shaped by unrestricted immigration, and in WWI it produced broader impulses toward conformity and defensiveness against foreign threat. "In desperate efforts to rebuilt national unity, men rallied against the symbols of foreignness that were appropriate to their predicament." (xiii). As a result of Higham’s perspective, this story is told from the perspective of the most defensive—the white men shaping policy, popular culture, and social mores in the years concerned. What makes this especially interesting is how anxieties around African-Americans only partially shape the anxieties surrounding immigration; larger questions of enfranchisement and employment emerge, yes, but the bigger question is that of whose culture dominates and whose undue “influence” is most feared.

[Derrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class. To start, I’d like to give this book some credit. Being a book from 1955, this was relatively readable. Most old books I read are incomprehensible, but Higham was able to write something that is still readable today. However, being relatively good does not mean that it is good. This book is dry and an absolute slog to get through. Granted, a lot of the information is interesting and important, but even a perfectly cooked steak can be ruined by the way it is served. I can also imagine that I was bored with this book because I had to read this for a class where I have already read two other books on nativism. Regardless, I will not be revisiting this book and I did not enjoy reading it.

[Cyrus Samii · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I learned from the book is that Americans have been debating since the dawn of the republic whether this is a "country of immigrants", built on the diversity of immigrant contributions, or a country established by and *for* a particular "tribe" or cluster of white European-origin people to exercise its beliefs freely. Much of American politics consists of the pendulum swing of the power position of these two points of view. The late 19th and early 20th c. were periods in which this played out quite explicitly, and that is what the book covers.

That said, the book is mostly a rote recounting of events. Eventually, my boredom led me to put it down.

[Kierra Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

John higham’s Strangers in the land is one of most thoroughly researched and exhaustive books. He provides a narrative synthesis on the history of nativism in through three strains : anti-Catholicism, anti-radical, and Anglo Saxon or racism. He really stresses the ebb and flow of nativism through these themes and starts from chronology from the Civil War to when President Lyndon Johnson signs the Johnson Reed Act in 1924.

[Hans Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Higham's narrative history of the major currents of Nativist Backlash against immigration remains a solid examination of the topic nearly 70 years after it was first published. Well-sourced and insightful, he vividly traces the three main strains of American nativism from the Civil War through to the 1924 passage of the Johnson-Reed Act.

[Donald Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand the politics US immigration policy , this the book to read. I think it's a great book.

[Ellen Weider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book!

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the history of nativism in our country’s history. Along with racism, it is ingrained in our history.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Higham’s analysis of nativism from 1860-1925 is masterful. Very insightful and very relevant.

[Valarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating topic, but kind of a slog of a read (it actually took me the better part of a couple years).

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real first class history book- and I don't hand out that accolade lightly. Even though it was written half a century ago, it's hard to argue with any point in the entire text. The prose is measured and careful, but ultimately it is easy to see the bias against the Nativist movement on the part of the author. Is that a problem? Not for me, though I imagine the crazies in the contemporary anti-immigration group would froth at their collective mouths if they weren't a bunch of illiterate bumpkins.

I jest, I jest- it is important to distinguish the advent of restrictive immigration policies- which is the END of this book- in comparing then vs. now. The bottom line is that when the legislation passed restricting immigration, the nativists effectively "won" and pro-immigration forces "lost" and so really this kind of "anti immigration" sentiment is the norm, rather then exception.

You need to read this if you care about the debate over immigration policy in the United States.

[Hotavio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangers in the Land was one of the first books to deal with the concept of nativism, which was the defensive mechanisms employed by white Americans in the face of surges in immigration. Higham studies trends in immigration from the 1870s to the mid 20s and measures to either curb this immigration or promote it. Of particular concern to Higham are Political developments, led by racialist scientific thinking, to welcome "preferred" people's into the country. While the timeframe that the author focuses on is satisfactory for establishing patterns, it leaves the reader stranded when the quota establishing Johnson Reed Act throws a wrench in the influx of Eastern and Southern European immigrants. This is perplexing because the book was written in the 50s allowing for the author to examine the outcome of this drastic regulation. Still, Higham addresses an important subject, which warrants attention. The roots of nativism can still be felt as contemporary "natives" bemoan the throngs of spanish speaking people coming into the country today.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a grad class.
It actually came as a surprise to me when I realized I'd finished this one - I hate reading books in chunks over a span of weeks. Throws me off. Anyway.
Higham is a brilliant historian, which I suppose should be obvious seeing how we're still using his work in schools. This is a key work for anybody interested in the trends in nativism in America, which really should be everybody. It's kind of a major theme in American history.
I will definitely be keeping my copy close for my future studies. I doubt I would use the entire book in a course unless it was an upper level undergrad or a grad course. But there is definitely the potential here to have a chapter or two stand alone and still teach a lot. I'm rambly tonight...shouldn't write book reviews after more than a glass or two of wine.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dated but still very useful history. Examines the rise, fall, and rise of American nativism over a semi-longue durée. Higham was a student of Merle Curti at Wisconsin, and Curti's influence is evident here. Higham pays close attention to "intellectual" primary sources and doesn't bury the reader with statistics or confusing philosophical concepts.

[Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems likely that the author was far more interested in his topic from the progressive era on, since the book moves from extremely dry to academically dry about the time that Teddy Roosevelt ideas. Despite the often tough sailing, the author is extremely thorough and often articulates events and trends impressively. This is a difficult but rewarding book.

[LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

HIST 8980: Hawes: Thematic Studies, Fall 2005

deals only with nativism, not so much the immigration groups themselves.

[AskHistorians]

A classic history of immigration and nativism (anti-immigrant sentiment) in the United States.

[Brian Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid history. The book is not excitingly written but it does cover a topic that is very relevant today.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book Newsweek suggests I should read now that I read years ago; I'm so ahead.