Reviewed by José Angel Hernández | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 28.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Journal of American Ethnic History online. About 268 words from this article are provided below; about 598 words remain.

If you are a subscriber to the Journal of American Ethnic History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of American Ethnic History, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American Ethnic History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Reviewed by José Angel Hernández | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 28.3 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

*Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity.* By Paul Spickard. New York: Routledge, 2007. xx + 721 pp. Maps, graphs, photos, tables, appendices, chronology, notes, and index. $95.00 (cloth); $39.95 (paper).
Well written, thoroughly researched, interpretive, refreshing, and informative, Almost All Aliens represents the culmination of Professor Spickard's many years of scholarly work. As he acknowledges, "I have spent much of my life preparing to write this book" (p. xv). Spickard's book is thoughtfully organized into ten chapters that outline the history of the United States through the prism of immigration. Beginning with a historiographical examination of immigration, race, ethnicity, and colonialism, Spickard lays the theoretical and methodological framework for the chronological chapters to come. His periodization is interesting and informed mostly by immigration laws passed since the seventeenth century, allowing the author to make the very compelling case that the immigration policies of the United States emphasized "race" and "whiteness" over all other considerations.	1
The book spans four centuries and touches on seemingly every ethnic group, incorporating not only the standard texts, but new monographs that have obliged the author to propose a paradigm shift. In doing so, Spickard challenges the residual influences of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis and the prevailing assimilationist impulses that currently dominate contemporary political discourse on immigration. Here Spickard's work is timely and important, and hopefully it will impact communities outside of academia. Almost All Aliens, moreover, succeeds in forcing the reader to "look at immigration and American Identity differently than he or she did before picking it up" (p. xviii).	. . .

There are about 598 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.