A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story - Hardcover

""A Nation of Nations" is a necessary book on what America has become in the last half-century. It tells the stories of new immigrants to a great country and defines and celebrates an exciting new American Exceptionalism."--Richard Reeves, author of INFAMY: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II

"An incisive look at immigration, assimilation, and national identity. . . . A timely, well-informed entry into a national debate."--Kirkus Reviews

"Builds through the accumulation of detail to a book of impressive heft."--Helen Thorpe "The New York Times Book Review "

"Powerful human stories. . . . Gjelten has produced a compelling and informative account of the impact of the 1965 reforms, one that is indispensable reading at a time when anti-immigrant demagoguery has again found its way onto the main stage of political discourse."--Colin Woodard "The Washington Post "

"A Nation of Nations" is a necessary book on what America has become in the last half-century. It tells the stories of new immigrants to a great country and defines and celebrates an exciting new American Exceptionalism. --Richard Reeves, author of INFAMY: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II"

Builds through the accumulation of detail to a book of impressive heft."--Helen Thorpe "The New York Times Book Review ""

A Nation of Nations is a necessary book on what America has become in the last half-century. It tells the stories of new immigrants to a great country and defines and celebrates an exciting new American Exceptionalism. --Richard Reeves, author of INFAMY: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II"

The 21st century will be defined by seismic global immigration, remapping human interaction to the core, and the United States will remain the model for other nations to emulate. Tom Gjelten understands why, not only because he is a byproduct of immigration, but because he has been in the trenches the inner cities, the rural landscapes, the contested borders--where America is reborn on a daily basis. In this probing exploration, he explains, lucidly and with compassion, the extent to which the motto e pluribus unum is the engine of progress."--Ilan Stavans, editor of Becoming Americans: Immigrants Tell Their Stories from Jamestown to Today"

Tom Gjelten sings of a new America that bravely invites newcomers. A Nation of Nations would have pleased Whitman himself for its generosity, spirit and hope. This book is both smart and moving. --Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires"

"A Nation of Nations is a necessary book on what America has become in the last half-century. It tells the stories of new immigrants to a great country and defines and celebrates an exciting new American Exceptionalism."--Richard Reeves, author of INFAMY: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II

The dramatic and compelling story of the transformation of America during the last fifty years, told through a handful of families in one suburban county in Virginia that has been utterly changed by recent immigration.

In the fifty years since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the foreign-born population of the United States has tripled. Significantly, these immigrants are not coming from Europe, as was the case before 1965, but from all corners of the globe. Today non-European immigration is ninety percent of the total immigration to the US. Americans today are vastly more diverse than ever. They look different, speak different languages, practice different religions, eat different foods, and enjoy different cultures.

In 1950, Fairfax County, Virginia, was ninety percent white, ten percent African-American, with a little more than one hundred families who were “other.” Currently the African-American percentage of the population is about the same, but the Anglo white population is less than fifty percent, and there are families of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American origin living all over the county. A Nation of Nations follows the lives of a few immigrants to Fairfax County over recent decades as they gradually “Americanize.” Hailing from Korea, Bolivia, and Libya, these families have stories that illustrate common immigrant themes: friction, between minorities, economic competition and entrepreneurship, and racial and cultural stereotyping.

It’s been half a century since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act changed the landscape of America, and no book has assessed the impact or importance of this law as this one does, with its brilliant combination of personal stories and larger demographic and political issues.