At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 First Paperback Edition

by Erika Lee (Author)

23 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0807854488

ISBN-10: 0807854484

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With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese laborers became the first group in American history to be excluded from the United States on the basis of their race and class. This landmark law changed the course of U.S. immigration history, but we know little about its consequences for the Chinese in America or for the United States as a nation of immigrants.

At America's Gates is the first book devoted entirely to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out. Erika Lee explores how Chinese exclusion laws not only transformed Chinese American lives, immigration patterns, identities, and families but also recast the United States into a "gatekeeping nation." Immigrant identification, border enforcement, surveillance, and deportation policies were extended far beyond any controls that had existed in the United States before.

Drawing on a rich trove of historical sources--including recently released immigration records, oral histories, interviews, and letters--Lee brings alive the forgotten journeys, secrets, hardships, and triumphs of Chinese immigrants. Her timely book exposes the legacy of Chinese exclusion in current American immigration control and race relations.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lee has authored a masterful book, well written and based on extensive research in both English and Chinese sources."
-- "American Historical Review"

"Makes a very significant contribution to both Asian American history and to U.S. immigration history. The amount of research that went into this book is prodigious."
-- Sucheng Chan, University of California, Santa Barbara

Makes a very significant contribution to both Asian American history and to U.S. immigration history. The amount of research that went into this book is prodigious. (Sucheng Chan, University of California, Santa Barbara)

"Lee addresses a multiplicity of issues and deftly weaves together several themes that, in the past, had been treated separately."

About the Author

Erika Lee is associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of North Carolina Press; First Paperback Edition (May 19, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807854484
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807854488
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.87 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #161,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #42 in Emigration & Immigration Law (Books)
- #63 in Civil Rights
- #103 in Asian American Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
23 ratings

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Alexander Dumas

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2012

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Erika Lee argued that the American implementation of exclusion policies towards Chinese played a significant role in transforming the United States from a nation of immigrants to a `gatekeeping nation'. Her book is divided into four parts: Part one deals with the events leading up to the eventual Exclusion Act of 1882 by addressing the public paranoia of invading Chinese `hordes' as well as the attitudes of Immigration Officials towards Chinese; Part two discusses the restrictive nature of the exclusion policies that specifically targeted Chinese as well as how Chinese circumvented these oppressive laws with the aids of lawyers, judges, non-Chinese (that is, European) friends and various others; Part three examines the inefficiency of the exclusion policies as the policies failed to sufficiently curb amount of Chinese entering the United States but rather resulted in corrupt Immigration Officials as well as smugglers creating a `black market' for immigration and thus labelling Chinese as one of the first `illegal' immigrants in the process; Part four analyses the immediate consequences of the Exclusion Act of 1882 by explaining that the exclusion policies resulted in Chinese illegally entering the United States which caused Government Officials to raid Chinese residence and places of business at anytime as well as construing that the vigilant surveillance of Chinese by Government Officials, indeed the general public, created an ambience of fear for Chinese communities. Furthermore, Erika Lee's extensive use of both primary and secondary sources made this book especially compelling. Lee cited hundreds of primary and secondary sources which she integrated beautifully in her book.

Overall, I believe her argument to be just and well formulated. However, it is hard to believe that the Chinese alone caused the US to become a "gatekeeping" nation. American Nativism extended far beyond the Chinese during this time. At the time of the Exclusion Act of 1882, for example, Americans already had a distaste for the new stock immigrants coming into the US. The Immigration Restriction League, as a another example, sought virulently to exclude most (if not all) immigrants like the Italians, Slavs, and numerous others. Indeed, it could be argued that the Chinese were just the first victims of American Nativism and American treatment for Chinese merely reflected future treatments towards other immigrants groups. As a result, the Exclusion Act of 1882 was just the first set of Acts arising from a predetermined goal at ultimately excluding all immigrants. The Chinese were just the first set of victims.

20 people found this helpful

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Jules1592

A Good Book to Learn From

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017

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I really enjoyed reading this book because it's educational and about a subject that I had not explored before. I bought this book as a textbook for one of my college classes. The reason why it gets 3 stars is that the writing style is terrible. The author writes in circles, using the same examples over and over again, then starting a new paragraph to describe in detail what I thought I had just read all about. The number of times that words like "also," "as well as," and "in addition to" were used drove me nuts. Almost every sentence contains one of those phrases, or so it seems.

I would recommend this book as a good learning tool, especially for someone who learns best through repetition. It definitely drives its points home. I would not really recommend this book to someone for casual reading or someone who already knows about the Exclusion Era because it is simplistic and the writing style is frustrating.

3 people found this helpful

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Katrina Page

Try to find literally anything else

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2018

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The information is just fine, but the writing style is one of the worst I have ever seen. It's like she started writing without an outline, and didn't plan out her thoughts. The only way to get through this book is to power through it.

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Keith B. Cuffy

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2016

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Great product. Excellent shipping times

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Jessica

book for college

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2012

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I got this book for an immigration course I'm taking at college. I'm super excited to read it and I'm very pleased with the condition that the book is in.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

diatribe

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2005

Verified Purchase

Erika Lee is a very angry woman. Her diatribe on American immigration policy equates anyone who is concerned about porous borders , the enforcement of laws in a nation of laws, and containment of disease as being a racist. It's hardly fair. And it detracts from her history of immigration legislation and enforcement. Yes, the Chinese Exclusion Act was reprehensible. Yes, we were and are a nation filled with racial prejudices and hatreds.

Immigration restrictions on other ethnic groups, according to Lee, were reflections of a racist policy towards Asians. She admits that the numbers of Asian immigrants was historically small and generally confined to the west coast. She then invests California, and San Francisco in particular, with an enormous amount of political power which was used to restrict immigration throughout the country. Lee is not convincing in her contention that the immigration issue was driven purely by an irrational racist beliefs and concerns over invading Asian hordes. She did not fully explain how the United States Congress, 3,000 miles distant, and generally unaffected by Asian immigration would develop a policy arising out of racism towards a group of which they were barely aware.

Exclusion based upon race is wrong. Looking different, having different cultural traditions, and not speaking the dominant language of English were and are roadblocks for all immigrants, not just the Chinese. Lee is a constant apologist for behaving as an outsider while expecting to be treated as an insider. Blaming national policy decisions on racial attitudes is too simplistic. Lee could have made an argument which addressed the nativistic xenophobia that was prevalent in the Gilded Age which was partly due to the arrival of masses of southern and eastern European immigrants. She could have argued that the closing and consequent filling of the frontier caused concerns about immigration in general. She contends that Angel Island was more racist than Ellis Island. She is too quick to condemn.

Chapter Four does provide valuable information on Chinese coming to the United States as sojourners. She explains that the immigrants are not unskilled laborers, but rather people who could improve the nation. She provides a good comparison between unskilled Mexican and Asian immigrants who come to this country in order to provide for their families back in the home country. Although she describes how employers needed these laborers, she doesn't investigate the economic impact of taking earnings out of the country rather than investing them in the country. She also provides a good description of how the Chinese with the help of immigration attorneys sought to and often did circumvent the law. She seems to imply that if some people can find loopholes in laws, then the laws should be repealed, or that people who manage to arrive in this country illegally should be rewarded for their tenacity by receiving amnesty.

Lee has researched her subject thoroughly. Her list of oral and written primary documents is impressive. However, Lee's book graphically demonstrates the difficulty that the United States now has in reforming its immigration policies and enforcing its borders (what Lee refers to as gatekeepers). To paraphrase Robert Frost, good fences make good neighbors. It appears that a concern for national security will generate an automatic response that such concerns are racist rather than a practical solution to security issues.

24 people found this helpful

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