ShelfLook
Tools About
Cover of America for Americans

How long does it take to read America for Americans?

A History of Xenophobia in the United States

Erika Lee, Shayna Small

America for Americans by Erika Lee, Shayna Small takes about 7 hours 55 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 7 hours 55 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2019. 432 pages, about 118,800 words.

16 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 13 hours 12 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 7 hours 55 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 57 minutes

The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

"The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In [this book], acclaimed historian Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Americans have been wary of almost every group of foreigners that has come to the United States. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed German immigrants for their 'strange and foreign ways.' Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement in the 1850s. Over the century that followed, Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported. Today, Americans fear Muslims, Central Americans, and the so-called browning of America. Xenophobia has not been an exception to America's immigration tradition, an episodic aberration on an inevitable march toward inclusion. It is, in fact, Lee argues, an American tradition in its own right, deeply embedded in our society, economy, and politics, Forcing us to confront this history, [this book] explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens us all. It is a necessary corrective and spur to action for any concerned citizen."--Dust jacket.

Subjects: Immigrants, united states, Minorities, united states, National characteristics, american, Nationalism, united states, United states, race relations, Xenophobia

More by Erika Lee

Books like this

Popular books of similar length