Not "A Nation of Immigrants"

Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

By: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett

Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States

Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today.

She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity—founded and built by immigrants—was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good—but inaccurate—story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception.

While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm shifting new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and a historical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States.

Essential

Keep an open mind. Value education. Respect history from all perspectives, and that is based on evidence. Learn something new. Take a good hard look at the narratives we like to tell ourselves to bolster structures of power that benefit colonizing systems of dominance and oppression. Change is possible and necessary, and we can make it happen.

Interesting thesis, well-written, poorly narrated

Author definitely has a point of view, but it's based on years of historical research; more of a feature than a bug. You just have to get past the distracting narration. Impersonations are weak and out of place in this type of non-fiction. The author's previous audio books used an excellent narrator.

Decolonization! Liberation! Revolution!

A wonderful historical toolkit for any and all comrades of the struggle for decolonization of North America.

EVERYONE READ THIS BOOK!!

What an incredible book that delves into the truth about what this country has done to so many marginalized communities.

Dense but informative

4 stars - It was really good

Trigger Warnings: racial slurs, antisemitism, colonialism, white surpremacy, genocide,

This was a very in depth look at immigration, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the United States history of erasing its history. I learned a lot with this book but at the same time, it was very overwhelming with how much information was in this, especially in the audiobook format. I had to take this book in small chunks and even then I was overwhelmed by how many facts were fed to me. I wish I had read this in ebook format because I think more of the information presented in this book would have stuck, but that just means I will probably try to reread this in the future to fix that.

Overall, this was a very informative book about settler colonialism and immigration. My only issue, outside of the dense amount of info, was that the narrator would use different voices when quoting other people and it was very jaring. I wish he would have just used his normal voice for these quoted parts.