A Good Read: Tulsa author reviews 'White Borders,' a timely look at U.S. immigration history

With immigration at the forefront of national news, Tulsa author Connie Cronley is recommending a book that explores the history behind the laws and sentiments shaping today’s headlines.

Cronley discussed White Borders, a book she says offers a broad and readable scope of U.S. immigration policy, written by a Guggenheim fellow and professor at the University of Hawaii.

“Because of that, I began to be curious, what is our history in this country with immigration laws?” Cronley said. “We pride ourselves on being a nation of a melting pot of many nationalities. The Statue of Liberty, give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses. I thought, what is the reality on that?”

The book traces America’s immigration policies from the early colonial era through the modern border laws, focusing on the shifting political and social attitudes over time.

“We did not have federal immigration laws until the late 1800s,” Cronley explained. “Although, as he points out, even the pilgrims had some restrictions.”

She noted early laws excluded Catholics, Jesuit priests, Quakers, the poor, and the infirm. The book also examines the racial and economic anxieties that grew during the California Gold Rush.

“There was a surge of Asian, especially Chinese immigrants. And the California population began to feel threatened, the white population,” she said. “The largest mass lynching in the United States was in San Francisco in the late 1800s.”

Cronley highlighted key historical moments covered in the book, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, literacy tests pushed in the 1890s, and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, which established immigration quotas under the slogan “Keep America American.”

“This book covers a lot,” Cronley said. “But rationally, sensibly, with little personal stories, very readable, very informational.”