Description
Book SynopsisPresent-day Americans may feel secure in their citizenship, but there was a time when citizens could be denationalized. Patrick Weil examines the twentieth-century legal procedures, causes, and enforcement of denaturalization to illuminate an important and neglected dimension of American citizenship, sovereignty, and federal authority.
Trade Review"An important, exhaustive, and meticulously researched work" *
Dissent *
"In vividly depicting the long struggle to secure the citizenship rights of Americans, Weil treats us to striking insights as well as delicious tidbits of newly discovered data." * Norman Dorsen, former President of the American Civil Liberties Union *
"One of the world's leading experts on nationality brilliantly explores past campaigns to strip Americans of their citizenship. Patrick Weil reveals how both bureaucratic rigor and national security zeal threatened citizenship rights, and points to important lessons for twenty-first century debates." * Gerald Neuman, Harvard Law School *
"In this masterful and timely book, Patrick Weil plunges deep into rarely used archives to write a new history of the shaping of American identity in the twentieth century, all the more important as we now debate the reform of immigration law. This story of belonging and exile has its heroes-defenders of civil liberties who deserve to be better known-and its scoundrels. Unlike many histories, it has a heartening conclusion." * Linda K. Kerber, author of
No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
PART I. The Federalization of Naturalization
Chapter 1. Denaturalization, the Main Instrument of Federal Power
Chapter 2. The Installment of the Bureau of Naturalization, 1909-1926
Chapter 3. The Victory of the Federalization of Naturalization, 1926−1940
PART II. A Conditional Citizenship
Chapter 4. The First Political Denaturalization: Emma Goldman
Chapter 5. Radicals and Asians
Chapter 6. In the Largest Numbers: The Penalty of Living Abroad
Chapter 7. The Proactive Denaturalization Program During World War II
PART III. War in the Supreme Court
Chapter 8.Schneiderman: A Republican Leader Defends a Communist
Chapter 9. Baumgartner: The Program Ends, but Denaturalizationn Continues
Chapter 10. A Frozen Interlude in the Cold War
Chapter 11. Nishikawa, Perez, Trop: "The Most Important Constitutional Pronouncements of This Century"
Chapter 12. American Citizenship Is Secured: "May Perez Rest in Peace!"
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Emma Goldman, "A Woman Without a Country"
From Mother Earth (1909)
From Free Vistas (1933)
Appendix 2. Chiefs of the Naturalization Bureau and Evolution of Departmental Responsibilities
Appendix 3. Naturalization Cancellations in the United States, 1907−1973
Appendix 4. Americans Expatriated, by Grounds and Year, 1945−1977
Appendix 5. Supreme Court and Other Important Court Decisions Related to Denaturalization and Nonvoluntary Expatriation from Schneiderman and Participating Supreme Court Justices
Notes
Archival Sources and Interviews
Index
Acknowledgments
