Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act
by Andrew Gyory
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Book Summary Information
Author: Andrew GyoryEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-23
ISBN: 0807847399
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Book Reviews of Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act
Book Review: Blaming the Politicians
Summary: 4 Stars
In this well researched monograph, Andrew Gyory seeks to answer one question: Why did the United States pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882? In the past, historians have clung to two arguments to explain the passage of this act; the California and national-racism theses. The former suggests that workers and politicians in California supplied the driving force behind the Exclusion Act while the latter supports the view that a national xenophobia and prejudice towards the Chinese led to the act's passage. Gyory downplays the role that these two factors had in securing the exclusionist legislation. Instead, he argues that politicians played the race card to improve their political standing in hopes of getting elected to office. Gyory asserts, "The single most important force behind the Chinese Exclusion Act was national politicians of both parties who seized, transformed, and manipulated the issue of Chinese immigration in the quest for votes." Throughout the monograph Gyory seeks to illustrate how politicians took up the issue of Chinese immigration in an attempt to reach their political aspirations.
In order to prove his point, Gyory attempts to disprove the long held thesis that workers nationwide supported Chinese exclusion. He stressed that opposition to Chinese immigration east of the Rockies was largely nonexistent. According to his argument, eastern workers were simply opposed to the Chinese coming to the nation under contract. Hence, white workers had no desire to support immigration legislation based upon race. In fact, Gyory believes, "Most workers evinced little interest in Chinese exclusion." Contrary to prior historiography, he suggests that Chinese exclusion gained acceptance because politicians claimed it would benefit the workingman. Many times throughout his work he blames political maneuvering for securing the act. For example, he claims, "To the very end, politics and political advantage remained the chief motivating force behind every stage of the Chinese Exclusion Act." Although his evidence is convincing, the monograph contains a few shortcomings.
Gyory aptly reveals that eastern workers did not advocate restrictions on free Chinese immigration. However, these workers did not rise up to show their disapproval once the Exclusion Act was passed. Does this silence not suggest that workers possibly supported the act, or were at least indifferent to its passage? Furthermore, the reader will find that the dire situation in California only receives limited attention. Riots and violence were a product of Chinese immigration to the state, but Gyory largely fails, or chooses not to, discuss these events. Moreover, it is difficult to ascertain whether the Chinese Exclusion Act was a product of politicians, or if they were simply responding to public opinion. Despite these problems, the monograph adds greatly to the study of Chinese exclusion.
Gyory's monograph is a great contribution to the historiography of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the reasons it came into existence. By evaluating a wide spectrum of sources - speeches, congressional reports, periodicals, labor journals, and political caricatures - Gyory puts Chinese exclusion in a national context. There is no doubt that his work has caused scholars to reevaluate the old assumptions on what led to the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. However, although he minimizes the impact that white laborers had in securing the legislation, it remains difficult to disprove the long held argument that workers were instrumental to this process.
Summary of Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred practically all Chinese from American shores for ten years, was the first federal law that banned a group of immigrants solely on the basis of race or nationality. By changing America's traditional policy of open immigration, this landmark legislation set a precedent for future restrictions against Asian immigrants in the early 1900s and against Europeans in the 1920s.Tracing the origins of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Andrew Gyory presents a bold new interpretation of American politics during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. Rather than directly confront such divisive problems as class conflict, economic depression, and rising unemployment, he contends, politicians sought a safe, nonideological solution to the nation's industrial crisis?and latched onto Chinese exclusion. Ignoring workers' demands for an end simply to imported contract labor, they claimed instead that working people would be better off if there were no Chinese immigrants. By playing the race card, Gyory argues, national politicians?not California, not organized labor, and not a general racist atmosphere?provided the motive force behind the era's most racist legislation.
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