JAEH Archive / Vol. 38, No. 1, Fall 2018

Journal of American Ethnic History

Vol. 38, No. 1, Fall 2018

Table of Contents

ARTICLES

Manila Prepares for Independence: Filipina/o Campaigns for US Citizenship and the Reorienting of American Ethnic Histories

By: Jane Hong

Abstract

This article examines the Philippine Commonwealth Government’s role in the success of the 1946 Luce-Celler Act’s provisions making Filipina/os eligible for US citizenship. It argues that Philippine officials at Manila adopted the legislative cause as part of their broader preparations for Philippine independence. They recognized that Filipina/o American communities would be vital to the state-building projects that followed independence, particularly through the remittances they sent back to the islands. Through this support of naturalization rights, Manila officials sought to inculcate in Filipina/o Americans a sense of responsibility to the islands that transcended formal citizenship. A centering of Manila’s role in the Washington-based naturalization campaign reveals Philippine officials’ instrumental understanding of the US citizenship bill as a means to achieve their own national goals. More broadly, it foregrounds decolonization and the dismantling of formal empire as important levers of US exclusion repeal toward Asian peoples.

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The Case of the Waylaid Immigrant Inspector: Authority, Respectability, and Sexual Misconduct, 1921

By: Lauren D. Catterson

Abstract

Drawing on a case file created on an immigrant inspector accused of sexual misconduct by an alien prostitute facing deportation in Detroit, this article traces the thorough investigation the US Immigration Service pursued when a serious allegation was made against one of its own. It presents the twists and turns of the investigation, reading transcripts of testimonies and internal correspondence between Detroit, Montréal, and Washington both along and against the grain. It argues that the case sheds critical light on how the Immigration Service understood respectable masculinity and the proper exercise of authority in the early 1920s. Due to the nature of their work, especially cases involving alleged “immoral” women and prostitutes, immigrant inspectors were supposed to embody the ideals of respectable middle-class masculinity, including order, moderation, and self-restraint. Improper sexual relations was a serious charge that challenged not only the reputation of the immigrant inspector, but also the Immigration Service more broadly.

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Wrench in the Deportation Machine: Louis F. Post's Objection to Mechanized Red Scare Bureaucracy

By: Matthew Guariglia

Abstract

Between the spring of 1920 and early 1921, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, Progressive-turned-bureaucrat Louis Freeland Post, refused to sign the warrants that would have been used to deport almost three thousand alleged immigrant radicals detained as a result of the Palmer Raids. Although this action has long been remembered as a triumph of US civil liberties, this article argues that Post’s objections to the deportations were grounded in his concern with the growing capabilities of mechanized bureaucracy and the tendency of these managerial technologies to discourage informed adjudication. Rather than opposing laws that would allow for the deportation of political radicals, Post vocally protested the “sign on the dotted line” style of governance he was expected to enact. As a result of his inaction, participants at every level of the emerging gate-keeping and immigration system objected to Post’s inability to let the deportation “machine” run.

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REVIEWS

Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics by Frederick Luis Aldama

By: Luis Sáenz de Viguera Erkiaga


The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening by Jennifer Lynn Stoever

By: Juan David Rubio Restrepo


Landscapes of Hope: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago by Brian McCammack

By: Erin Stewart Mauldin


Whiteness on the Border: Mapping the US Racial Imagination in Brown and White by Lee Bebout

By: Hannah Noel


The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era by Michael A. Ross

By: Rochelle Outlaw


Wars for Empire: Apaches, the United States, and the Southwest Borderlands by Janne Lahti

By: Matthew M. Babcock


From Praha to Prague: Czechs in an Oklahoma Farm Town by Philip D. Smith

By: Gregory C. Ference


Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and Mexican Countryside by Tore C. Olsson

By: John J. Dwyer


Shameful Victory: The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Scare, and the Hidden History of Chavez Ravine by John H. M. Laslett

By: Jaime R. Aguila


Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935–1965 by Sid Bedingfield

By: Aleen J. Ratzlaff


Fragile Families: Foster Care, Immigration, and Citizenship by Naomi Glenn-Levin Rodriguez

By: Ana K. Soltero López


Playing While White: Privilege and Power On and Off the Field by David J. Leonard

By: Andrew McGregor


Colored No More: Reinventing Black Womanhood in Washington, DC by Treva B. Lindsey

By: Danielle Phillips-Cunningham


The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press by Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

By: John Radzilowski


The Remittance Landscape: Spaces of Migration in Rural Mexico and Urban USA by Sarah Lynn Lopez

By: Benjamin James Waddell


Before the Pioneers: Indians, Settlers, and the Founding of Miami by Andrew K. Frank

By: Denise I. Bossy


Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America by Rachel Kranson

By: Donald Weber


The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West by Ryan Dearinger

By: Katherine S. Carper


Creating the New Right Ethnic in 1970s America: The Intersection of Anger and Nostalgia by Richard Moss

By: Joe Merton