The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot: American Presidents and the Immigrant, 1897-1933Mercer University Press, 2004 - 261 pages Between 1897 and 1933 the presidents of the United States joined progressive reformers in redefining the concept of the United States as a melting pot. Their use of this metaphor to describe assimilation never meant that immigrants had to completely abandon their ethnic cultures. Instead, they argued that the melting pot blended the best of the immigrants traits and traditions to create a new American race united by patriotism and committed to liberal political and economic ideals. While nativists regarded new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as incapable of assimilation, the presidents celebrated immigrant contributions to America and emphasized the need to improve immigrants' lives through education, resettlement away from urban ghettoes, and economic uplift. The president's speeches, letters, and administrative records reveal consistent support for the melting pot model as an alternative to nativist racism. While McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson supported the exclusion of racial aliens and those with mental or physical illness, they repeatedly praised the new immigrants for embracing American ideals while maintaining their ethnic cultures. They argued that everyone should be judged by their moral character rather than their ancestry. World War I raised fears of disloyal aliens that Roosevelt and Wilson heightened by denouncing hyphenated Americans. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover continued to use melting pot rhetoric, however, rather than endorsing coercive assimilation. The melting pot legacy lives on, and still offers a middle ground between the demands for national unity and multiculturalism. |
From inside the book
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Page x
... called for the creation of a singular national identity based upon American political ideals . Supporters of the melting pot concept set minimal criteria for assimilation of the foreign - born , assuming that the process was both ...
... called for the creation of a singular national identity based upon American political ideals . Supporters of the melting pot concept set minimal criteria for assimilation of the foreign - born , assuming that the process was both ...
Page xiii
... called " a bully pulpit " ) to shape public opinion , denying the claims of nativists that racially and culturally inferior immigrants threatened the health and strength of the nation . At the same time , they called on the foreign ...
... called " a bully pulpit " ) to shape public opinion , denying the claims of nativists that racially and culturally inferior immigrants threatened the health and strength of the nation . At the same time , they called on the foreign ...
Page xiv
... called upon in World War II and the civil rights movement . 10 The progressive concept of the melting pot never fully resembled the model attacked by the new ethnicity scholars of the 1960s and 1970s , who defined assimilation as ...
... called upon in World War II and the civil rights movement . 10 The progressive concept of the melting pot never fully resembled the model attacked by the new ethnicity scholars of the 1960s and 1970s , who defined assimilation as ...
Page 2
... called Americans have arisen . " Assimilation eliminated all differences , whether racial or religious , in the process of forming a new culture . " He is an American , who , leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners ...
... called Americans have arisen . " Assimilation eliminated all differences , whether racial or religious , in the process of forming a new culture . " He is an American , who , leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners ...
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Contents
1 | |
Theodore Roosevelt and Immigration of the Right Kind | 27 |
William Howard Taft and the Dillingham Commission | 61 |
Woodrow Wilson and Hyphenated Americans | 94 |
Chapter 5 The Melting Pot at Its Boiling Point | 121 |
Warren G Harding and Americanization Revised | 155 |
Common terms and phrases
accepted Address administration aliens allowed American argued Asian assimilation asylum become believed bill called campaign Charles Chinese citizens citizenship City civilization Cleveland Commission Commissioner Committee Congress continued Coolidge created culture Davis December Democratic Despite economic Ellis Island ethnic Europe European excluded explained February foreign foreign-born German groups Harding Herbert Hoover History Hoover House Hutchinson hyphenated ibid ideals immigration restriction insisted Irish issue Italy James January Japanese John Labor land language League Legislative History Letters Liberal limited literacy test living March McKinley melting pot national origins native nativists naturalization offered Office opposed party passed pointed political president Presidential progressive quotas race racial reel Representatives Republican Robert Secretary Selective Senate Series Society Southern speech standard Taft Theodore Roosevelt treaty United University Press vote Washington White William Woodrow Wilson wrote York
Popular passages
Page 2 - He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.
Page vii - America is God's crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty hatreds and rivalries.
Page 2 - ... American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Page 5 - ... shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe?
Page vii - Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries. But you won't be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you've come to — these are the fires of God.