gender, race, and the progressive era literacy test debate
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Petit, Jeanne D.
- Publish Year
- 2010
- Shelfmark
- VS 1F 2010 - B
- Thesaurus
- taalgebruik, wetgeving, alfabetisering, onderwijs, seksualiteit, identiteit, gender, etniciteit, migratie, 20e eeuw, Verenigde Staten
- Description
- Should immigrants have to pass a literacy test in order to enter the United States? Progressive-Era Americans debated this question for more than twenty years, and by the time the literacy test became law in 1917, the debate had transformed the way Americans understood immigration, and created the logic that shaped immigration restriction policies throughout the twentieth century. Jeanne Petit argues that the literacy test debate was about much more than reading ability or the virtues of education. It also tapped into broader concerns about the relationship between gender, sexuality, race, and American national identity. The congressmen, reformers, journalists, and pundits who supported the literacy test hoped to stem the tide of southern and eastern European immigration.