All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It

(Paperback)

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For three decades establishment Democrats and Republicans have led a bipartisan assault on immigrants. Pulled further and further right by a vocal and organised group of nativists, they have turned the southern border region into a conflict zone, breaking up millions of families in the process. In All-American Nativism, Daniel Denvir delivers a caustic takedown of liberal triangulation on the border, showing how concessions to enforcement first law and order immigration politics hasnt placated the nativistsit has only inflamed them. Establishment officials from both parties have allowed the right-wing to dictate our policy on migration, even as popular opinion clamours for a more humane and just approach. With the centre collapsed, the left can either demand full amnesty now, or cede the ground of national belonging to nativists and white supremacists.

Reviews

Daniel Denvir's All-American Nativism is the book we need, a searing work of scholarship that explains how we entered the current hellscape of American politics and what we have to do to get out. The roots of white nativism are deep, as Denvir's book makes clear, but like all roots can be pulled up and killed. All-American Nativism will help us do so. -- Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth
All-American Nativism powerfully explores the deep roots of nativism in national life as well as how Trump's agenda is itself the culmination of the policies and the logic pursued for decades by both major parties. In the process, Daniel Denvir masterfully demonstrates the relationship between today's debates over immigration and ongoing struggles against neoliberal austerity, mass incarceration, and the violence of the security state. In this way, the book not only offers a diagnosis of the present, but also a stirring vision of solidarity and change. This is an essential and profound work, providing critical insights about the American experience and where to go from here. -- Aziz Rana, author of The Two Faces of American Freedom
In this timely book, Daniel Denvir tackles am important question: what is old and what is new in Trump's nativism Denvir helps us understand both the historical roots and the more recent routes by which "build the wall" came to be the central rallying cry of racial-nationalism. A must-read for anyone who wants to know how we got here. -- Mae Ngai, author of Impossible Subjects, Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
As Daniel Denvir's exceptional book shows, the history of US immigration politics is central to understanding how our many crises have converged in this moment. It's precisely the kind of analysis our movements need to pry open the fissures of the current order, and join in common struggle for a better world. -- Naomi Klein, author of No is Not Enough
Daniel Denvir's All American Nativism excavates the history of anti-immigrant politics in the United States and reveals a difficult truth: Donald Trump is the symptom, and not the cause, of a bipartisan consensus underlying the current war on immigrants. In this sense, Denvir's book is an invaluable tool for organizers and activists who subscribe to what Paulo Freire meant by praxis, where reflection and action are required to bring about transformative change. -- Pablo Alvarado, National Day Laborer Organizing Network
Traces the development of anti-immigrant sentiment -- Cora Currier * The Intercept *
Shimmers with frustration and rage -- Brendan O'Connor * The Baffler *

Author Bio

Daniel Denvir is a fellow at Harvard Law Schools Fair Punishment Project and the host of The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. His journalistic work covers criminal justice, the drug war, immigration, and politics, and has appeared in the New York Times, Jacobin, Vox, Nation, Guardian, and elsewhere.