Changing Perceptions of Race
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson explains that perceptions of race vary over time. "What are now called the 'white ethnics,' we see as a just kind of minor distinctions of basic kind of whiteness," Professor Jacobson n...
Chinese Exclusion Act, The
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson traces the evolution of negative attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in the United States, culminating with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
1924 Immigration Act, The (Part Three)
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson explains that there was significant opposition to the 1924 Immigration Act, but Franz Boas and others who opposed the legislation were not powerful enough to block its passage.
1924 Immigration Act, The (Part One)
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about the inspiration Hitler and other prominent Nazis took from American science and the 1924 Immigration Act. "Hitler saw that law as a real inspiration for the way the state co...
Civil Rights Movement Evolves, The
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about the evolution of the Civil Rights movement, explaining how it moved from an emphasis on integration and a philosophy of "race doesn't matter," to a focus on group rights and...
Race and Ethnicity: Who's Who and What's What?
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson explains that there are differences of opinion as to what constitutes "whiteness." Individual anthropologists or other social scientists do not always agree with government census categ...
1920s...Beyond the Glitter, The: Conflict of Cultures
The secular culture that emerges in the 1920s coexists with an older, more provincial sect that views this "new era" as a threat to their way of life. Prohibition fails, the Ku Klux Klan expands their targets to not only African Americans, but newly...
Degrees of Whiteness
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about violence carried out against immigrants, as well as a curious duality in the way European immigrants were viewed in the early twentieth century. Professor Jacobson explains ...