| abstract |
For the first century of its history, the United States had an open-door policy and essentially no immigration laws. Subsequently, however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a eugenics-led Immigration Restriction Movement (IRM) arose and brought about a seemingly improbable, but nonetheless total, reversal of U.S. immigration policy through the enactment of the Immigration Restriction Acts of 1917, 1921, and 1924. Many historians looking at this period recognize the influence of eugenics on the IRM but generally view the new immigration laws as a natural response to the large numbers of poorer immigrants arriving from southern and eastern Europe. It is the thesis of this dissertation, however, that the success of the immigration restriction movement – in a country of immigrants – was not simply a natural outgrowth of nativist sentiment but required, in fact, a highly organized and comprehensive crusade aimed at inducing a nation-wide hysteria, or moral panic, to garner widespread public support for laws restricting the entrance the so-called "new immigrants." This dissertation is essentially a sociological case study of the eugenics-led IRM, using the sociological tools of Moral Panic theory, Collective Action Framing, Resource Mobilization Theory, Pierre Bourdieu's Social Capital Theory, and Howard Becker's concept of moral entrepreneurs. I use these tools to analyze the various factors, ideologies, and central persons that contributed to the growth and success of the IRM. The purpose of this research is to outline the fundamental claims of eugenics and other racially based theories prevalent at the turn of the century, to show their influence on the attitudes of the upper-class elites, and to trace the connections between the elites, the organizations they created, and their overall impact on public opinion and government policy. This research will help illuminate how the original American aristocracy or governing class, which had initially welcomed good-natured and skilled newcomers into their ranks, effectively became a closed caste, restricting access almost exclusively to white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, creating cultural and political divisions that continued to have substantial effects, not only on immigration, but also on the entire society throughout the 20th century.
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