{"product_id":"the-guarded-gate-bigotry-eugenics-and-the-law-that-kept-two-generations-of-jews-italians-and-other-european-immigrants-out-of-ameri-9781476798059","title":"The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of Ameri","description":"\u003cb\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE \"100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR\" BY \u003ci\u003eTHE \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the widely celebrated \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLast Call\u003c\/i\u003e--this \"rigorously historical\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e) and timely account of how the rise of eugenics helped America keep out \"inferiors\" in the 1920s is \"a sobering, valuable contribution to discussions about immigration\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day, \u003ci\u003eThe Guarded Gate \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper class Bostonians and New Yorkers--many of them progressives--who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than forty years. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOver five years in the writing, \u003ci\u003eThe Guarded Gate \u003c\/i\u003etells the complete story from its beginning in 1895, when Henry Cabot Lodge and other Boston Brahmins launched their anti-immigrant campaign. In 1921, Vice President Calvin Coolidge declared that \"biological laws\" had proven the inferiority of southern and eastern Europeans; the restrictive law was enacted three years later. In his trademark lively and authoritative style, Okrent brings to life the rich cast of characters from this time, including Lodge's closest friend, Theodore Roosevelt; Charles Darwin's first cousin, Francis Galton, the idiosyncratic polymath who gave life to eugenics; the fabulously wealthy and profoundly bigoted Madison Grant, founder of the Bronx Zoo, and his best friend, H. Fairfield Osborn, director of the American Museum of Natural History; Margaret Sanger, who saw eugenics as a sensible adjunct to her birth control campaign; and Maxwell Perkins, the celebrated editor of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. A work of history relevant for today, \u003ci\u003eThe Guarded Gate\u003c\/i\u003e is \"a masterful, sobering, thoughtful, and necessary book\" that painstakingly connects the American eugenicists to the rise of Nazism, and shows how their beliefs found fertile soil in the minds of citizens and leaders both here and abroad.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/19\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781476798059\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 496\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.10d","brand":"Daniel Okrent","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36652509266076,"sku":"9781476798059","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_f827102b-6215-45dc-906a-e57551469d66.jpg?v=1603879927","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-guarded-gate-bigotry-eugenics-and-the-law-that-kept-two-generations-of-jews-italians-and-other-european-immigrants-out-of-ameri-9781476798059","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}