Amanda Frost is a Harvard-educated lawyer who teaches in Washington, D.C. at American University (and soon will be joining the faculty at UVA). You are Not American is her first book. It looks at various moments in United States history where citizenship was debated and legislated in lasting ways. Some of the cases she examines are well known, such as the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which ruled that African Americans had “no rights” that a “white man was bound to respect.” Other cases–such as the Wong Kim Ark and Ruth Bryan Owen cases–ended better for those seeking citizenship. But You are Not American shows how often citizenship rights have come under attack and how often immigration and citizenship laws are tainted by overt racism, sexism, and xenophobia. 

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