Impossible Subjects
| Author | Mae M. Ngai |
|---|---|
| Series | Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America |
| Subject | U.S. history |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
|
Publication date
|
2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America |
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, is a Frederick Jackson Turner Award-winning book by historian Mae M. Ngai published by Princeton University Press in 2004.
In part one, Ngai begins with discussing the implications of immigration restriction in the 1920s by particularly focusing on border patrol and immigration policy which she argues results in a changing discourse about race. In part II, she focuses on migrants from the Philippines and Mexico by discussing their role in the U.S. economy and how they challenged cultural norms about the traditional work force. In part III, Ngai examines the shift of regulations around Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans especially their eligibility for citizenship. She uses Japanese internment camps as evidence of their lack of legal and social inclusion in the United States. In part IV, she analyzes the next era in immigration policy which she suggests is embodied in the Hart-Cellar Act. She discusses how immigration policy was affected during the years of 1945-1965 by World War II. She concludes part IV by showing how the immigration policies during the time period after 1965 contributed to increased illegal immigration and heightened a seemingly unsolvable problem going forward.
Ngai utilizes a dense amount of primary source material in Impossible Subjects. The sources used cover a wide range of mediums. Some examples are personal writings, oral histories, photographs, government documents, court rulings, and contemporary books. All of these, but primarily the court rulings and government documents, are utilized by Ngai in constructing her argument.
Given that Ngai is a U.S. legal and political historian, she uses many court cases throughout her book in order to show the flexible nature of U.S. legislation and public opinion regarding immigration. The court cases are also used to show how the United States judicial system and the government approached the legality of immigration and assimilation over time. Furthermore, they are used to reflect racial attitudes by the United States government and citizenry, such as through the racial language used in their composition.
Impossible Subjects was written by Mae M. Ngai and published in 2004 by Princeton University Press.Impossible Subjects was Ngai’s first full-length book, and she has also published a number of works in major newspapers and academic journals. Ngai graduated from Empire State College with a B.A. and went on to Columbia University where she earned her M.A. in 1993 and her Ph.D in 1998. Currently, Ngai is a professor of Asian American Studies and History at Columbia University in New York City and focuses on the invention of racial categories, specifically looking at the creation of Chinese racial categories. Impossible Subjects won six different awards, including the Theodore Salutos Prize, which was given to Ngai by the Immigration and Ethnic History society, and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians First Book Prize. The book examines legislation, court cases, and attitudes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that affected immigration. Through Ngai’s analyses of these factors, readers are shown the long-lasting impacts these cases have had on the American public’s views on ‘illegal aliens’ and how ‘illegal aliens’ became “impossible subjects.”
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