The idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants is at the core of the American narrative.
In a riveting narrative filled with a fascinating cast of characters, from the indefatigable congressman Emanuel Celler and senator Herbert Lehman to.
But in 1924, Congress instituted a system of ethnic quotas so stringent that it choked off large-scale Immigration for decades, sharply curtailing arrivals from southern and eastern Europe and outright banning those from nearly all of Asia.
The idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants is at the core of the American narrative