STRANGERS IN THE LAND PATTERNS OF AMERICAN NATIVISM,1860-1925 - Essay Example

The discussions herein about American nativism are balanced and so convincing that the book can be taken as a re-incarnation of an unchanging modern American history. The aim of the authors of historical books, such as James, is to make history known to the present generation. History made known is culture preserved and therefore easy value teaching to the current and subsequent generations. John aimed at giving the history of nativism and how it developed into the current patterns in America.

The author must have wanted to explain the effects of being anti-foreign: how this vile affected America and its inhabitants’ relationship with foreigners who settled in the American continent. According to Higham (2008), the book aimed at explaining how being anti-foreigners ebbs its way into how individuals’ actions and opinion towards the people deemed to be foreigners (5). The opinions may be political, socio-economic or intellectual. The findings of this book are numerous; they are basically on the unfriendly relationship between the Americans and the foreigners and how the interaction affected the life of these parties.

The findings include how the patterns of neglect were formed, how the behavior was normalized, the crisis that it brought in the eighties and the journey towards reversing nativism in the late 20th century. John does not fail to express how the foreigners in America came to regain their confidence after being accepted as part of the population. It is shocking that nativism evolved into racial prejudice later in the American history and the ethnocentric background began to give confidence to the perpetrators of this awful act (Higham 159).

Other findings included how America went to war to save other countries from the hands of adversaries while trying as much to maintain unity amongst its own people. This is the struggle that raised tension and slackened confidence amongst Americans (Higham 195). John also submits how