The Chinese Must Go

Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America

By: Beth Lew-Williams

Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino

In 1885, following the massacre of Chinese miners in Wyoming territory, communities throughout California and the Pacific Northwest harassed, assaulted, and expelled thousands of Chinese immigrants. The Chinese Must Go shows how American immigration policies incited this violence, and how this gave rise to the concept of the "alien" in America.

Our story begins in the 1850s, before federal border control established strict divisions between citizens and aliens—and long before Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the nation's first attempt to bar immigration based on race and class. When this unprecedented experiment failed to slow Chinese migration, armed vigilante groups took the matter into their own hands. Fearing the spread of mob violence, policymakers redoubled their efforts to seal the borders, overhauling immigration law and transforming America's relationship with China in the process. By tracing the idea of the alien back to this violent era, Lew-Williams offers a troubling new origin story of today's racialized border.

©2018 President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2022 Tantor

well researched and written!

this book was really well done and ties the broader history together with individual stories that bring it to life

Meh Performance, but GREAT book, especially now.

The performance was a bit wooden, but the book was amazing. Especially now. So I need to add more words, so here I am continuing to type.

Fantastically researched story

I think “American citizenship” defined is a better title as I kept getting pleasantly surprised by the narration. The epilogue was the best. Have to listen slowly and with care. I went back to write notes in my book to highlight the takeaways. Love the details almost like a law school course that underlies the battle of different segments of society. The aristocrats or the elites have a different perspective than the working class. Chinese Americans have been victims of both. This calls for global dignity to everyone, with opportunities for the aspired to sustain human progress. Looking forward to the next book.

Important and valuable book

The terrific book is filled with important information not just about the Chinese in America but about America itself. No contemporary listeners can fail to hear the echoes in today’s news. But it’s an academic history, if an unusually well-written one, organized thematically rather than as a start-to-finish narrative. The narrator’s voice is clear and strong but she reads as if she hadn’t seen the text before.