nativism — Bunk History

JD Vance, along with characters from the Scorsese movie "Gangs of New York," shown over a background of a map of New York City

JD Vance is Just Another Know Nothing Nativist

MAGA has been a largely white movement of non-urban people who seem to think that people unlike them are scary and that there is only safety in homogeneity.

by Rebecca Solnit via Literary Hub on August 23, 2024

Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C.

Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again

Trump's seeming mixup of asylum-seeking refugees with patients in psychiatric institutions stems from a long rhetorical and political tradition.

by Jeremy Peschard via The Abusable Past on June 20, 2024

Migrants feet and bags after being dropped off within view of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Aug. 11.

The Disturbing Precedent for Busing Migrants to Other States

In the 19th century, Americans dumped poor migrants overseas. Now some governors are shipping them off to other states.

by Hidetaka Hirota via Made By History on August 16, 2022

Political cartoon of Albert Gallatin attempting to stop a chariot driven by George Washington.

Nativism, Conspiracy Theories, and Mobs in Federalist America

Many people celebrate the U.S. as a nation of immigrants, but nativism has infused its politics from the outset.

by Sean P. Harvey via The Panorama on December 14, 2021

Know-Nothing flag

The Many Faces of Nativism

As this exhibit shows, anti-immigrant sentiment has been a throughline of American history.

Oil cloth cape, worn to protect a firefighter’s upper body from embers and water. Likely from the Shiffler Fire Hose Company No. 32, of Philadelphia, founded in 1846.

There Was an Ashli Babbitt in the 19th Century. His Story Is a Warning.

To understand the right’s plans for Babbitt, look to George Shiffler.

by Zachary M. Schrag via Slate on September 1, 2021

Political cartoon depicting the menace of monopolies and trusts (1899)

Degeneration Nation

How a Gilded Age best seller shaped American race discourse.

by Adam Morris via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 14, 2020

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

The Nativist Tradition

Two recent books put the reemergence of anti-immigrant sentiment in the Trump era into historical relief.

by Joel Suarez via Dissent on July 6, 2020

How Nativism Went Mainstream

Three decades ago, California was the launchpad for a virulent strain of anti-immigrant politics that soon spread nationwide.

by Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on February 1, 2020

Anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia in 1844

Lewis Levin Wasn't Cool

The first Jewish member of Congress was a virulent nativist and anti-immigration troll who ended his life in an insane asylum.

by Zachary M. Schrag via Tablet on October 22, 2018

Map of Oregon

Oregon’s Racist Past

Until the mid-20th century, Oregon was perhaps the most racist place outside the southern states, possibly even of all the states.

by Linda Gordon via Longreads on July 12, 2018

The Notorious Book that Ties the Right to the Far Right

The enduring popularity of "The Camp of the Saints" sheds light on nativists' historical opposition to immigration.

by Sarah Jones via The New Republic on February 2, 2018

How Do We Explain This National Tragedy? This Trump?

On 400 years of tribalism, genocide, expulsion, and imprisonment.

by T. J. Stiles via Literary Hub on January 31, 2018

Massachusetts State House

Don’t Count on the Supreme Court to Stop Trump’s Travel Ban

Chinese exclusion in the 19th century exposes the limits of the justices' power.

by Katy Long via Made By History on July 5, 2017

Nativism, Violence, and the Origins of the Paranoid Style

How a lurid 19th-century memoir of sexual abuse produced one of the ugliest features of American politics.

by Mike Mariani via Slate on March 22, 2017

Trump's Anti-Immigration Playbook Was Written 100 Years Ago. In Boston.

How a trio of Harvard-educated blue bloods led a crusade to keep the "undesirables" out and make America great again.

by Neil Swidey via Boston Globe on February 9, 2017

Not Who We Are

The U.S. is neither a land of nativists nor a haven for immigrants. Since the founding, the truth has lain somewhere in between.

by Paul A. Kramer via Slate on February 3, 2017

We’ve Been Here Before: Historians Annotate and Analyze Immigration Ban's Place in History

Six historians unpack the meaning of President Trump's controversial executive order.

by Angilee Shah via PRI's The World on February 1, 2017

200 Years of Immigration Data Put Trump's Ban into Context

In light of President Trump's temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, we take a look at larger immigration trends.

by Alan M. Kraut via STAT on January 31, 2017

How the 19th-Century Know Nothing Party Shaped American Politics

From xenophobia to conspiracy theories, the Know Nothing party launched a nativist movement whose effects are still felt today.

by Lorraine Boissoneault via Smithsonian Magazine on January 26, 2017

Calvin Coolidge, Grace Coolidge, and Senator Charles Curtis.

Donald Trump and the Return of the 1920s

We are again caught between nationalists longing for an imagined past, and activists invoking ideals the nation has not attained.

by Richard Yeselson via The Atlantic on December 30, 2015

What Americans Thought of Jewish Refugees on the Eve of World War II

On the eve of World War 2, most Americans opposed granting asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler.

by Ishaan Tharoor via Washington Post on November 17, 2015

Anthony Caminetti.

Slamming America’s Door Behind Him

How a son of European immigrants fought to keep Indian immigrants out of America.

by Scott Miller via HNN on October 28, 2025

The Statue of Liberty as clouds roll in.

The End of Asylum

The second Trump administration has undone the division between political and economic migrants. Did it make sense to separate them to begin with?

by Mae Ngai via New York Review of Books on October 12, 2025

Black and white icons of people gathered into the shape of the US.

Are You a ‘Heritage American’?

Why some on the right want to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War.

by Ali Breland via The Atlantic on October 7, 2025

Trump's Chipocalypse Now meme, featuring Trump as Lt. Kilgore attacking Chicago with helicopters.

Trump’s ‘Chipocalypse Now’ Meme Sends a Message With Deep Historical Roots

What could be more purgative, more exhilaratingly American to the MAGA base than avenging the nation with racial warfare?

by Joe Lowndes via New Lines on September 12, 2025

American Progress by John Gast, 1872, oil on canvas.

Who’s Afraid of “Settler Colonialism”?

If we dismiss concepts because of particular examples of misuse, we encourage the repression of discomforting histories and ideas.

by Aziz Rana via Dissent on September 8, 2025

Alexander Hamilton painting by John Trumbul, 1792.

Hamilton’s Real Immigration Story

The popular musical poses Alexander Hamilton as a symbol of the value of immigrants brought to America, but over time, his party became increasingly xenophobic.

by Livia Gershon, Phillip W. Magness via JSTOR Daily on September 2, 2025

55th Massachusetts marches through Charleston, 1865.

Elevating the Few

What J.D. Vance excludes from the history of the Civil War and immigration.

by Elizabeth R. Varon via HNN on July 16, 2025

Wanto Company storefront with a sign that reads "I am an American."

Alien Enemies

The torturers have been revising, the gestapos have been busy, and the prisons have been full for generations.

by Brandon Shimoda via The Baffler on July 9, 2025

A man walks down the street dressed as Uncle Sam and carries a large baby Donald Trump doll.

Cracked, Costly Fantasies

The legacy of right-wing ideologies in California.

by Dan O’Sullivan via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 28, 2025

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