Immigration

Name: Immigration
Brand: Polity Press
Price: 140.75 AUD
Availability: PreOrder

How the Past Shapes the Present

By: Nancy Foner

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Hardcover | 4 May 2026 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.8 x 13.7 x 2.3

Hardcover

$140.75

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Available: 4th May 2026

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American history is, in part, a history of immigration â" of waves of people from other lands making their way to America's shores.

Immigration: How the Past Shapes the Present argues that the past is critical in understanding current immigration; that a new historical perspective offers important insights into what is happening today. Foner examines both the facts of immigration in the past and how they are perceived â" the stories, myths, and memories that color how we think of immigration today and the politics that govern it. This new historical perspective helps us understand contemporary nativism, distinguishes what is new from long-established patterns, reveals how legacies of earlier immigration shape the lives of present-day arrivals, and offers a fresh look at what lies ahead.

The book is especially relevant at a time when immigration history is being made â" on an almost daily basis â" yet scholarship on today's immigration does not always consider the past. Drawing on a wealth of historical and contemporary research, the book makes a clear and powerful case for writing history into the study of contemporary immigration.

Industry Reviews

"In this readable and wide-ranging book, Nancy Foner explores how our understandings of past immigration shape our interpretations of current immigration. She shows that myths about the past, and nostalgia for a past that never existed, contribute to current-day anti-immigrant attitudes. This hopeful and erudite book should be required reading for all Americans."
Mary C. Waters, Harvard University

"This book is a myth-buster that clears the way for a better understanding of how the history of immigration shapes the present moment, told in a refreshing, thoughtful, and concise way by a preeminent scholar of immigration."
Mae Ngai, author of The Chinese Question

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