Secondary Sources in the Book

¶ … Secondary Sources In the book Not Fit for our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America by Peter Schrag, the author's main goal appears to critically examine the phenomenon of immigration in the United States. The main point appears to be that, although the country is known as "a nation of immigrants," new immigrants to the country are almost invariable regarded with xenophobic suspicion and treated as a type of almost "evil" that exists to rob the country of what the current native-born nation considers its purely American nature.

In other words, whenever new immigrants appear on the country's borders, citizens and leaders alike attempt to allow in only those elements they consider to be conducive to maintaining what is considered American culture. By considering this from a historical viewpoint, the author makes the point that, although every generation of immigration regulators have considered newly arrived immigrants with the same level of suspicion, doubt, xenophobia and even racism, none of their fears proved true in the long-term.

The author admirably reaches this goal by an extensive and objective description of the immigration phenomenon, with each chapter focusing on a particular period of American history. This creates a thorough view of the situation and its various related issues, problems, and concerns held by collective Americans at each time period. Interestingly, many of these concerns were the same or at least similar throughout history, regardless of specific time period or moral standing of the day.

The PowerPoint presentation, in contrast to Schrag's book, does not provide the specific goals and objectives of the chapter in list form. The brief nature of the document as well as the fact that it focuses on only one chapter makes it difficult to provide as much detail as Schrag does in his lengthy work. Nevertheless, some guidance is provided by the Overview and Chapter Questions sections. These provide a sense of the direction the document will take, although it does not indicate a central thesis point.

The main purpose of the chapter appears to be a discussion of progressivism, its development, and the challenges it faced during its development. The best an analyst can therefore do is to determine whether the questions have been addressed in a logical and clear fashion. When going through the items in the presentation, it was found that, especially in the initial slides, the information was somewhat confusing, not immediately connecting the link between the "Muckrakers," child labor photos, and progressivism. A slide explaining this link would have been somewhat helpful.

The later slides, however, provide clear and consistent information that also clarified some of the earlier slides. The sequence, however, was not completely logical and would require reading the entire chapter. The presentation, therefore, would be more useful for the purpose of study or revision than for initial information gathering. In terms of evidence and proof, Peter Schrag begins his book with a section entitled "Sources and Acknowledgements. This section lists, in particular detail, the many primary and secondary sources he used to create his work.

Most interestingly, the author begins by pointing out that he was himself subject to the prejudice and suspicion aimed at newly arrived immigrants when he arrived on American shores from Germany with his parents. He therefore has first-hand experience of both being at both ends of the immigration phenomenon. Once he and his family were thoroughly integrated into American culture, the author acknowledges that he was every bit as prejudiced against new arrivals as his native-born counterparts.

In addition to first-hand experience, Schrag also notes that he has been writing on the subject of immigration for decades. Much of the material he used for his research during these years also serves as basis for the book. In addition, Schrag is very specific when listing the sources he uses as a basis for his work. These include both primary and secondary sources that relate to immigration issues over the time periods he addresses in his work. All his statements and claims are therefore thoroughly supported.

While the PowerPoint presentation does include the occasional citation, there is no specific list of references to support the information provided. Again, this is an element that might be included in the chapter itself. By taking an objective view of the immigration phenomenon over centuries of American history, Peter Schrag is able to reveal the dichotomy between the general attitude to immigrants and the American ideal of inclusiveness and human rights, as guaranteed to all by the Constitution of the country.

In this, he is even able to objectively consider his own attitudes, particularly when he was young, towards the same.