Book Description
Pat Buchanan is sounding the alarm. Since 9/11, more than four million illegal immigrants have crossed our borders, and there are more coming every day. Our leaders in Washington lack the political will to uphold the rule of law. The Melting Pot is broken beyond repair, and the future of our nation is at stake.
In this important book, Pat Buchanan reveals that, slowly but surely, the great American Southwest is being reconquered by Mexico. These lands---which many Mexicans believe are their birthright---are being detached ethnically, linguistically, and culturally from the United States by a deliberate policy of the Mexican regime. This is the “Aztlan Plot” for “La Reconquista,” the recapture of the lands lost by Mexico in the Texas War of Independence and Mexican-American War.
Comparing the immigrant invasion of America from across the Mexican border---and of Europe from across the Mediterranean---to the barbarian invasions that ended the Roman Empire, the author writes with passion and conviction that we have begun the final chapter of the Death of the West. Unless the invasion is halted now, Buchanan argues, by midcentury America will be a country unrecognizable to our parents, the Third World dystopia that Theodore Roosevelt warned against when he said we must never let America become a “polyglot boardinghouse” for the world.
President Bush’s failure to halt the invasion and secure America’s border, Buchanan writes, is a dereliction of constitutional duty that, in other times, would have called forth articles of impeachment. In the final chapter, “Last Chance,” he lays out a sweeping immigration reform and border security plan, which, he contends, if not pursued, means George W. Bush’s legacy will be to have lost for America a Southwest that was the legacy of Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk. With an estimated ten to fifteen million “illegals” already here and tens of millions more poised to pour across our borders, few books could be as timely---or important---as State of Emergency. It is essential reading for all Americans.
Customer Reviews:
xenophobia or rational position?.......2007-09-13
Buchanan, makes an impassioned argument that the country is in a 'state of emergency' because of our neglegence in dealing with the immigration issue. However, many of the arguments seem to steam from a fear that America is losing its traditional anglo-identity, and not rational arguments that show why largre-scale immigration is such a great evil for this country. While he does makes some good points and back them up with some statistics, most of the time is just trying to scare people with anticdotal evidence. I conclude that Buchanan's book, while completely correct that we need to pay attention to the immigration issue and that there could be catastrophic effects for neglecting it, fails to ever show that a large mexican immigration is a bad thing just that there needs to be restrictions in place on who we let in and what we require of them.
A Good Book but lacking in the Proper Historical Perspective .......2007-08-19
Texas, AZ, NM, CAL, Utah and most of the eastern US, areas the US now calls its own were neither paid for properly nor legally. They were stolen from their owners, both native american indians and latinos. Buchanan mentions that CAL for example only had 3,000 Mexicans in it when these lands were stolen from them. How many americans were there at the time????? Not very many. What he conveniently fails to mention are the lands which these 3,000 owned at the time, mnay of them were farmers who controlled huge areas of land in the most desireable climatic growing areas. The US government promised these people compensation for their lands if they permitted their lands to be squatted on by expansionist caucasian farmers, miners and cattlemen. But once the caucasian squatting started the deals were soon broken. The lands given to the american indians were even more laughable, typically dry, nearly waterless lands with little to no meaningful crop or cattle supporting abilities which the expansionist caucasians did not want to occupy anyway. Wow what a deal for them indeed.
This is what happens when the creation of "your" country is basically the result of an entirely "Illegal Caucasian Invasion" which is what the title of this book really should be. Unlike many other nations where new cultures immagrated in and assimililated themselves in a legal manner, the US as we know it today was essentially stolen at gunpoint from its occupants in a wholly illegal manner. Historical FACTOID! It's laughable how we whine about what is happening in the US but talk about how bad Hitler was in Germany. What exactly did Hitler do that was so bad? How about the fact he occupied lands at gunpoint, slaughtered millions of the inhabitants in those occupied lands, and committed all sorts of atrocities upon the native peoples of those lands he invaded. Sound like familiar story folks????? Well, it is, because that is EXACTLY how america was formed by primarily euro based caucasians in the past 200 years. Indians were slaughtered, their food sources wiped out, Latinos were slaughtered and those who were offered "deals" almost never ended up getting what they were promised by the US government. We took the most fertile lands available and left the desolate areas for indians and called them "reservations". Our cheap labor force in the caucasian controlled South for decades was Negro slave labor STOLEN from Africa. Now we whine about how a new wave of invaders isn't fair, pooh hoo hoo. This is called reaping what you have sowed. If you or Buchanan had bothered to study your history even a bit for the past millenium you would know that this is how all countries formed at gunpoint usually inevitably end up.
As for the laughable comment that Clinton and GW Bush caused the current immigration problem, better go study some more history. Good old Ron Reagan, the same guy who authorized selling chemical weapons to Saddam, the same guy who illegally sold weapons to Iran a sworn enemy of the US at the time, the same guy who deregulated the S&L's leading to the S&L crisis and a $1 trillion taxpayer funded bailout of the S&L crisis (through the RTC) is also the same EXACT fellow who promoted amnesty and opened the doors for the current wave of huge immigration into this nation. Bush SR also certainly played his part, and in fact up until this past November your Congress had been controlled by Republicans for the past 13 years, blame them too. And most of all do not fail to blame both US consumers and employers, many of them caucasians. Consumers who love the low prices they pay for various goods thanks to the dirt cheap illegal labor employed by so many of the companies you buy goods from and the employers themselves who knowingly employ much of this illegal cheap labor force to fatten their profits. Stop the illegal employment and you'll end the problem. But of course you'll also then pay higher prices for your produce, landscaping, construction, restaurant food bills, clothing, etc..
Blame the primarily caucasian employers employing this labor force and the primarily caucasian consumers willingly buying and benefitting from the prices of the products produced/sold by the employers of these illegals while simultaneously whining about it like crybabies. Anyone here shop at Walmart recently????????????? They have been found guilty of hundreds of illegal immigrant employment violations in the past decade. If you shop there even once a year you and your family yourselves are therefore overt supporters of illegal immigration by your own consumer actions. WM is just one of many examples.
Sad but True.......2007-08-17
I hate to say it but I agree with everything Pat said. We can't even take care of whose here. No point in bringing in more problems.
Open This Book Only in Emergency. Now?.......2007-08-06
Mr. Buchanan, as ever, comes through with an easy to-understand slant on current affairs, this time making the case for curbing the numbers of immigrants entering our nation in a major way. He's a good writer, yes; but he too often gets bogged down in short chronologies of historical events that occurred well prior to his topic. This does make for some dry, colorless reading here and there. From the Austro-Hungarian Empire to 1918 Czechoslovakia to French Enlightenment and on, in many cases, the reader is left asking "What does this have to do with the subject at hand"?
Several of the chapters are bursting at the seams with percentages, numerical comparisons, quantities, poll results...in paragraph after paragraph of analysis of populations, voting results, immigration details, dollar figures. Great pages for the researcher, but he really doesn't footnote much of the number crunching; so often one wonders: "Pat, where'd all this numbing number-information come from, anyway?"
All in all, author Buchanan makes some compelling points about the impending "take-over" of USA Southwest by Mexican immigrants [by "invasion without a shot"], quite sanctioned by the Mexican government. He discusses big-city sanctuaries for illegals, quotas, assimilation, low-pay jobs and languages...and takes to task the allegiance of Mexicans as they proclaim for themselves: "Mexican-American, but Mexican first." He points out (many times) that we can expect the "loss of our country [Southwest and all, by "2050"] as we know it," unless we make prompt national adjustments.
He proclaims "things will change" for us in a major way, but Buchanan doesn't tell us how different things actually will be. He doesn't even make small guesses as to what to expect [by 2050, his repeatedly target year]. How will new "MexiAmerica" will look and feel? Excepting his recurrent assertion that whites will be in a definite minority, he doesn't say much more about the year 2050. --But who knows, Pat. It could all be for the better!
Too, the author doesn't say much (if anything) about the current influx of Muslims into the country.... We might guess he's simply left that to Mark Styne and his work on the subject. --But we should ask: why isn't it part of this book? Isn't the fast migration of Islam also a concern of "The [total] Emergency" that we face...or is Buchanan's whole concept being slightly exaggerated after all? Finally, The author notes we have but "one more chance" to return to sanity and security...and offers many salable directions for us to take to save ourselves...including building a long, fat border; reevaluation of "anchor baby" laws; and, he says, "no amnesty."
I'm not sure Pat Buchanan's made his case here; even so, he's come up with another interesting read. Yet "State of Emergency" does have the texture of Mark Styne's "Alone America" and Buchanan's previous work, "Death of the West." It's the same Pat Buchanan here with an old focus--and a bit of new information plus some absorbing looks at how Mexicans see the USA. Three stars for a relevant re-hash of many things we pretty much know about...amid vacant history lessons we pretty much don't much care about.
Clear and concise.......2007-07-13
Pat Buchanan presents the problem of illegal immigration and possible
terrorist threat in a logical way. There are no scare tactics, just
"how it really is" and "how it could be". I am not a raving conservative,
and am in fact on the more liberal side, but everything he said makes
sense. I gave it 4 stars because he throws in the occassional "slam"
toward the Democrats but for the most part he concentrates on the
problem that affects us all.
Book Description
Many Americans were shocked by the rhetoric and demands voiced during the immigration protests in the Spring of 2006. From Los Angeles to Atlanta, from Phoenix to Chicago, an estimated two million protesters marched in more than fifty cities. They demanded a blanket amnesty for illegal aliens under the banner of "immigrant rights" and insisted that rights now afforded legal immigrants should be granted to those here illegally. Anything short of that was condemned as "racist."
How could the United States have come to such a pitiful condition?
Congressman Tom Tancredo has been the only consistent voice in our government warning Americans of the dangers of failing to secure our borders and fix the nation's immigration system. Five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government still has done virtually nothing to secure America's borders. The government largely ignores the threats to our safety and sovereignty resulting from its refusal to fix a broken system.
What is happening on our borders is one story, but what is happening within America is even more disturbing. As would-be terrorists plot attacks on our country, vocal advocates of multiculturalism are sapping our strength from within. Together, they form a potent adversary that is as great a threat to our nation as anything we have faced in our history.
As a result, America is in the midst of an identity crisis. As a nation we no longer seem to know who we are or what we believe. Instead of "one nation under God," we are divided, confused, and angry. We need to understand how this has happened and the underlying causes that have us to this divided point.
Tom Tancredo lays out the case that unless the United States changes course, it is headed toward catastrophe. Like the great and mighty empires of the past—"superpowers" that onces stretched from horizon to horizon—America is heading down the road to ruin. Without strong moral leadership, without a renewed sense of purpose, without a rededication to family and community, without shunning the race hustlers and pop-culture sham artists, without protecting our borders, language, and culture, the nation that was once the "land of the free and home of the brave" and the "one last hope of mankind" will repeat the catastrophic mistakes of the past. In Mortal Danger is his prescription for beginning to repair the damage.
Customer Reviews:
author and Presidential Candidate Tom Tancredo in 2008.......2007-06-20
Colorado Representative Tancredo makes clear that the politically correct labeling of illegal laborers as "undocumented" is incorrect, as most of them have forged documents, forged social security numbers, and/or stolen identities - they are guilty of Felony Document Fraud in addition to having broken a number of other laws to be in our country illegally.
Tom Tancredo is also very clear that our governments failure to uphold our laws by prosecuting the employers of illegals, as well as prosecuting sanctuary communities, sanctuary cities, sanctuary states, and the officials that promote unconstitutional local amnesty ordinances are in themselves guilty of criminal offenses, not the least of which is aiding and abetting, and as such are subject to prosecution.
Amazing book!.......2007-04-19
Written in an easy-to-read language, Tom Tancredo's book is a real eye-opener.
I recommend this book for any budding conservative of any age- especially if he's our next President. If this book is his campaign statement, then we have the opportunity to elect a true American.
The issues of the US security and immigration .......2007-04-10
Congressman Tancredo does one of the best jobs I have seen tackling the all too important and all too often ignored issues of mass immigration and border security of the US. Chapter by chapter he dissects the issue of immigration and it impact on our country, our economy, our health care and the breach of security to this nation. He debunks many of the current low key patches proposed by others in government such as the guest worker program which basically grants amnesty for those who have entered here illegally by breaking the law and are rewarded for doing so. He tackles on of the biggest issues of our day, our loss of national identity in lieu of our pursuit of political correctness and "multi culturalism". He does a superb jobs of demonstrating how many illegals do not severe their bounds to their origin countries and do not make attempts at assimilation to our country and are simply here to exploit its wealth. He assets it is the US's right to decide who comes here and it should be done in this nation's best interest. He discussed how we should be proud of western civilization and illustrates many examples of how we as a society have been bombarded with the message to love all cultures and the country should suit the needs of all cultures at the loss of our own national pride and identity. There should be no hyphenated-American. My only issue is that the congressman takes the occasional political jabs at democrats (Tancredo is a conservative republican). The book would be better suited if this was avoided. Many local and state governments find themselves abandoned by the federal government when it comes to illegals and border security. It's truly an issue for the federal government and not many of our elected officials have had the political courage to resolve this problem. Our borders could very easily be secured (never 100%) so that they are not porous. The one great thing about this book is it's not just a laundry list of all the issues but offers some excellent solutions that the author is currently seeking in his elected position. A very easy read and written in simple language, every US citizen should become familiar with this subject as it could very well be our demise as a nation.
Stop playing the race card.......2007-04-06
Tom Tancredo is a fair-minded, intelligent politician who is helping to structure debate on the issue of illegal immigration for the 2008 presidential election. He cares equally for all citizens regardless of ethnicity. His goal is to preserve the American dream for present and future American citizens. I would like to respond to the lonely reviewer from Seattle who insinuates he's some kind of racist:
Quote:
"The only thing Tancredo and his conspirators in hate contribute to the discussion is racism and ignorance."
The (silent) majority of Americans are weary of the noisy, agenda-driven groups (LaRaza, Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, Latino activists, Mexican politicians and just general fools) who resort to playing the race card here. There is absolutely nothing racist about being opposed to people entering the country illegally and thereby depriving legal immigrants and citizens of opportunities that rightfully come with American citizenship. These opportunities are reserved for American citizens because they are paid for by American citizens with their tax dollars. Anything else is just foreign aid.
If the people we're discussing here were blue-eyed, blonde Swedes behaving identically to the current group of illegals (i.e., driving down American workers' wages, stealing Social Security numbers and identities, demanding free health care and education that citizens aren't even entitled to, re-introducing old diseases that we've nearly licked, like tuberculosis and polio, and bringing in terrifying new ones, such as Chagas disease, bankrupting hospitals and refusing to assimilate into our society. . . if these people were light-skinned Swedes, I would want this problem dealt with in an identical manner. There simply is no basis for crying racism here, and it's a dirty tactic. When citizen Latino Americans and African Americans bear the brunt of the problem of wage reduction and opportunity loss, it's a downright ridiculous assertion.
I appreciate Tom Tancredo's amazing efforts to bring this issue to the forefront where it belongs. I urge everyone here to NOT vote for Sen. John McCain who supports a "path to citizenship" for those in this country illegally and also to pay close attention to the views of the other candidates. This book is an important tool in educating the public about this enormous problem which threatens our ability to pursue our American dreams.
In Mortal Danger,The Battle for America's Border and Security.......2007-02-16
A superb picture of the turmoil America is in today.You will find yourself dumbfounded over the lack of immigration and border control. Should Congressman Tom Tancredo decide to run for the 2008 election of the precendency he shall definitely have my vote.
Book Description
This book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy--a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century.
Mae Ngai offers a close reading of the legal regime of restriction that commenced in the 1920s--its statutory architecture, judicial genealogies, administrative enforcement, differential treatment of European and non-European migrants, and long-term effects. In well-drawn historical portraits, Ngai peoples her study with the Filipinos, Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese who comprised, variously, illegal aliens, alien citizens, colonial subjects, and imported contract workers. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, re-mapped the nation both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol. This yielded the "illegal alien," a new legal and political subject whose inclusion in the nation was a social reality but a legal impossibility--a subject without rights and excluded from citizenship. Questions of fundamental legal status created new challenges for liberal democratic society and have directly informed the politics of multiculturalism and national belonging in our time.
Ngai's analysis is based on extensive archival research, including previously unstudied records of the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service. Contributing to American history, legal history, and ethnic studies, Impossible Subjects is a major reconsideration of U.S. immigration in the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
The construction of the illegal immigrant and discriminatory US policies.......2006-12-01
The United States of America is the great melting pot of the world's immigrants, or is it? A white, middle-class, Protestant, European American lifestyle is what the great melting pot of American folklore was truly intended to articulate to the immigrants of the early 20th century. Mai Ngai counters this image of the US as the embracive playground of diverse immigrants and powerfully weaves the tale of how race, nationality, assimilation, and immigration all became interwoven concepts in overtly discriminatory US immigration policy of the mid-20th century in her newest book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. As Mae says, "The telos of immigrant settlement, assimilation, and citizenship has been an enduring narrative of American history, but it has not always been the reality of migrants' desires or their experiences and interactions with American society and state." (5)
Throughout the history of the United States, there has been a clear struggle to define who can gain citizenship in this great nation. Ngai's book attempts not to tackle this debate, but rather how the construction of the illegal immigrant came about because "the promise of citizenship applies only to the legal alien, the lawfully present immigrant. The illegal immigrant has no right to be present, let alone embark on the path to citizenship." (6) Her book begins in 1924 with the adoption of the Johnson-Reed Act which established numeric quotas for immigration from countries across the globe. Prior to the 1920s, immigration was relatively unrestricted as, "the free global movement of labor was essential to economic development in the New World." (17) Ngai points out that it is vital to note that this pre-Johnson Reed Act period did see the exclusion of Chinese laborers who migration disturbed the precious ideas of manifest destiny in the West. She stresses that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was most important because the Supreme Court gave Congress absolute control over immigration as part of foreign relations.
Throughout her book, Ngai focuses on what she believes to be the two biggest consequences of the Johnson-Reed Act, the first being creation of the concept of illegal alien and the second being racially ranking the desirability for certain groups to immigrate to the United States. Perhaps the most powerful quote of the entire book goes, "Immigration restriction produced the illegal alien as a new legal and political subject, whose inclusion within the nation was simultaneously a social reality and a legal impossibility - a subject barred from citizenship and without rights." (4) Ngai points out that the irony of this newly created status is that the undocumented or illegal immigrants are woven into the economic fabric and labor market of our nation, and yet as they are cheap labor, they are disposable labor who can easily lose their ability to live in even the subhuman conditions in this oh so great nation.
Now that this new quota system was to be implemented, how would the country establish what the quotas would be for the varying countries of the world? Easy, they compared it to the approximate composition of the US population circa 1790, a clearly discriminatory and completely inaccurate and unreliable practice! As the rising popularity of eugenics was during this time period, there had been increased emphasis on census and racial definition and maintaining "racial hygiene". "Euro-American identities turned both on ethnicity - that is, a nationality-based cultural identity that is defined as capable of transformation and assimilation - and on racial identity defined by whiteness." (7) In this construction of the white American, those non-white, browner immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Mexico were deemed less desirable and lower class peoples who subsequently had a lower quota for the number of immigrants allowed. Ngai points to Mexicans as a changing population in regards to the immigration and whiteness policy of time, as originally they were deemed white as the need for immigrant farm workers was needed in the Southwest, but then subsequently deportation and repatriation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans became the common practice.
Ngai wonderfully illustrates how as this period of quota-based immigration restrictions continued, the treatment of Filipinos, Mexicans, Chinese, and Japanese worsened to the extent of which no matter how long they or their families had been woven into the fabric of the US, they were viewed and abused as second-class foreigners. Ngai urges you to remember, these were systematic attempts at ranking races, excusing maltreatment, and elevating the political, economic, and racial status of white Euro-Americans, and not just subtle nuances of American policies. As the US struggled with its policies towards the Philippines, practices bounced back and forth from Filipinos being portrayed as being capable of "benevolent assimilation" but at the same time clearly of Asian ancestry and eventually was pushed towards independence and repatriation. As World War II arose, the massive discrimination and maltreatment that the Japanese and Chinese Americans endured only further reinforced their cultural ties to their home countries and therefore they were portrayed as disloyal citizens. In many cases these were actual citizens of the US, native-born patriotic people who had protected rights unlike those of their illegal immigrant counterparts. Ngai reminds us not to forget about the Cold War and the extreme measures that were taken to exclude Chinese people from immigration to the US and even participation as US citizens in order to protect us from evil communist China.
Ngai's phenomenal history comes to a close with the Immigration Act of 1965. Although this act overturned the racialized, discriminatory numeric quota system, it did sadly further extend the reach of numeric restrictions. For anyone who believes that racial hierarchy as part of US policy is a thing of the ancient past, for anyone who believes that African-Americans and their struggles for civil rights were the only systematically discriminated against population in recent US history, this is the book for you! Sit back and relax as Ngai takes you through this tremendously researched sensational tale of the United States and the construction of the illegal immigrant.
This book makes me want to hop the border to Canada.......2005-11-20
This book is truly awful. I don't know what her publisher was thinking by letting this book get out. The tone: Nasal. The language: Sociological jargon. The argument: Garbage. Save a tree and find something better.
Reframing immigration history.......2005-11-03
Mae Ngai's ambitious book compels historians and general readers alike to critically reassess traditional understandings of and approaches to U.S. immigration. Much of the histories on U.S. immigration and immigration policies have told a similar tale. The United States, the narrative goes, has been tainted by a long history of exclusion, a blight on the nation's democratic tradition that was only recently removed with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Such a narrative not only reaffirms the myth of American universalism, but also consistently fails to produce any new critical knowledge about U.S. immigration and U.S. history. Impossible Subjects differs from these other works of immigration history in this important respect: it proceeds with the conviction that the United States was never a "nation of immigrants."
Ngai examines the era between 1924 and 1965, an unconventional periodization in immigration history that situates the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act (usually signifying the end of one regime) at the beginning of her study, and the Immigration Act of 1965 (usually signifying the beginning of another) at the end. Beyond simply filling a historiographical gap in immigration history, the focus on this period of immigration restriction enables a reevaluation of U.S. immigration laws, and more broadly of U.S history, on several levels. First, it demonstrates that restrictionist policies did not merely function as a tool for exclusion, but more, it created-through a racial and geographical remapping of the nation-new categories and concepts deeply implicated in race that defined the spaces and limits of national inclusion. Second, these categories and concepts, most notably "illegal aliens" and "national origins," are not natural or fixed conditions and markers, but are the product of positive law that, when scrutinized, reveal the ways in which its uses have shaped and defined the United States in the twentieth century, particularly its ideas and practices about race, citizenship, and the nation-state. Finally, this periodization allows for a reconfiguration of immigration history beyond a nationalist framework. By suggesting that the making of modern America rested on the exclusion of nonwhites from the geographical and ideological borders of the nation during this regime of restriction, the book argues against the normative telos of immigrant settlement, assimilation, and citizenship as the defining narrative of American history, a narrative that is confined to the nation-state and that invariably reproduces American exceptionalism.
By charting the historical origins of the "illegal alien" and the genealogy of immigration laws that have consistently reproduced it, Ngai has ultimately written a stunning history that goes far beyond narrating the history of U.S. immigration restriction. It is a book that deserves to be read widely.
The legally constructed "illegal aliens".......2004-07-04
IMPOSSIBLE SUBJECTS, written by Mae Ngai, is the best of recent books on the 20th-century American history of immigration. She reveals that the problem of "illegal immigrants," which has been regarded as one of the most serious problems since the late 20th century, is indeed a legal construction. According to the author, immigrants from Mexico were drawn into the U.S. Southeast because the Southeast political economy, especially agri-business, raised need for the massive wave of low-wage immigrant workers and at the same time defined them as the racially "foreign" people who were rendered alien to America, which was defined as the nation of Caucasians. What enabled the American Government and people to attach racialized foreignness to the Mexican immigrants (and, inevitably, American citizens of Mexican origin) were Immigration Acts, border policing, and discriminatory control of visas.
Mae Ngai argues that positive laws concerning immigration policy have constructed the category of "illegal aliens" from Mexico, and the implementation of the laws by Border Patrols and INS has reinforced the labeling of racially alien immigrants. She bases her analysis on the critical legal theory which suggests that laws constitute social formations. Her usage of the new legal theory in her inquiry into the American immigration history is highly excellent and persuasive.
The historical analysis of the immigration problems in this book seems to be applicable to other countries' history. For example, Ngai's insight shall give light to the recent Japanese conservative media discourses on the "illegal migrants" from China, South Korea, and Latin American nations which describe the undocumented migrant workers as illegal, criminal and, in case of women, prostitutes.
I would have dedicate five stars to this book if its text were easier to read (it is possible that I felt this book's text not very easy to read because I am not of a native-English tongue).
Book Description
"A rare combination of an author, [Mike Davis is] Rachel Carson and Upton Sinclair all in one."-Susan Faludi
"[Davis' writing is] perceptive and rigorous."-David Montgomery, The Nation
"[Davis' work is] brilliant, provocative, and exhaustively researched."-The Village Voice
"[Davis' work is] eloquent and passionate."-Tariq Ali
No One Is Illegal debunks the leading ideas behind the often violent right-wing backlash against immigrants.
Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacon expose the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and put a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States.
Davis and Akers Chacon challenge the racist politics of vigilante groups like the Minutemen, and argue for a pro-immigrant and pro-worker agenda that recognizes the urgent need for international solidarity and cross-border alliances in building a renewed labor movement.
Writer, historian, and activist
Mike Davis is the author of many books, including City of Quartz, The Ecology of Fear, The Monster at Our Door, and Planet of Slums. Davis teaches in the Department of History at the University of California at Irvine, and lives in San Diego. Davis is the recipient of the 2001 Carey McWilliams Award and the World History Association Book Award.
Justin Akers Chacon is professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego, California. He has contributed to the International Socialist Review and the book Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Press).
Customer Reviews:
Fair trade, working class solidarity, compassion, etc........2007-06-14
This book dismantles the narratives we hear from the establishment media regarding undocumented workers. It covers the history of oppression migrant workers have faced, including beatings from the KKK and the Order of Caucasians, among other vigilantes organized by agribusiness interests.
It also covers the devastating impacts of NAFTA on Mexico's economy. Page 121 points out, "Over 1.3 million small farmers in Mexico were pushed into bankruptcy by cheap American grain imports between 1994 and 2004. Luis Tellez, former undersecretary for planning in Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, estimates that as many as 15 million peasants will leave agriculture in the next few decades, many seeing migration north as the only option. . . Meanwhile, the deindustrialization of Mexico continues unabated. Mexico lost an unprecedented 515,000 jobs in the first three months of 2005 alone."
What industry there is, is now found in the sites of hyper-exploitation known as maquiladoras.
One negative review calls the book "Marxist." Well, the book is mostly just an honest analysis of the situation. Something that demagogues like Tom Tancredo avoid. Tancredo likes to whip up hysteria. His congressional district (one of the wealthiest in the country) has a large Lockheed Martin plant. Lockheed will be making a fortune on the further militarization of the border.
Anyway, the book does include one quotation from Karl Marx, and I think it's worth repeating. Justin Akers Chacon writes: "Marx illustrated the self-sabotaging nature of the conflict between 'native-born' workers and immigrant workers in his analysis of the relationship between the English and Irish working classes when he wrote, 'The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker, he feels himself a member of the ruling nation and so turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists of his country against Ireland, thus stengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social and national prejudices against the Irish worker. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organization. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And that class is fully aware of it.'
Inter-ethnic and international class solidarity, or lack thereof, has been a determinant of the progression, inertia, or regression of the American labor movement. When nationalist or chauvinist sentiments are strong, the working class is weak, demonstrating the deep penetration of ruling-class ideology into working-class consciousness."
This book also covers the conquest of Mexico, and the opportunities for organizing immigrants.
It's a sensational book that I have been quoting over various message boards. I'll be buying several copies of it.
[...]
another book for school.......2007-05-16
I bought this book for a class at college. I am really tired of this propoganda. I do not agree with the viewpoints.
Utter Trash Whose Only Redeeming Quality Is It's Potential Use As Toilet Paper, Or To Start A Nice Fire.......2007-04-15
I had a peek at this book at a snobby little bookstore in Seattle called "The Left Bank" - I spent a half hour reading several chapters, and the experience was not unlike listening to that pseudo-intellectual idiot you knew back in college. The one that thought the world would be great if we'd all embrace utopian Marxism. Imagine that person wrote a book so completely one sided that it utterly dismisses any dissenting opinion as Fascism or Right Wing Extremism. That's what you'd have here, a book that already has it's mind made up, which is great if you're an ILLEGAL alien or one of the dozens who might share the author's point of view. Anyone interested in an intelligent two-sided analysis of the immigration debate would do well to steer clear of this leftist propaganda.
Great Book.......2007-01-19
Read this book for a class, truly enjoyed the book and the class
A scholarly, heavily researched yet harsh wake-up call to American immigration policy injustice........2006-11-05
Written by Justin Akers Chacon (professor of US History and Chicano Studies in San Diego) and Mike Davis (teaches in the Department of History at the University of California at Irvine), No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US-Mexico Border is a sharp rebuke against anti-immigration vigilantism, denouncing the often violent right-wing backlash against immigrants and striving to put a human face upon the men and women who cross America's borders. Chapters survey white, anti-immigrant violence in California history from the inception of the Ku Klux Klan, the "Yellow Peril", and anti-Filipino riots to modern times, with an especially critical eye turned toward the Minutemen. Also scrutinized is the history of how dominant corporate interests and the wealthiest members of America have used immigration policy to control labor - such as the bracero program, an individualized contract that subjects a guest worker to deportation at the employer's relative discretion; such "guest worker" programs actually give agribusiness employers more control over their workers than they would have over undocumented workers, who can migrate to construction other fields and thus place some pressure upon agribusiness to raise its poverty-level wages. A scholarly, heavily researched yet harsh wake-up call to American immigration policy injustice.
Book Description
Had enough?
Whether you find the government oppressive, the economy spiraling out of control, or if you simply want adventure, you're not alone. In increasing numbers, the idea is talked about openly: Expatriate.
Over three hundred thousand Americans emigrate each year, and more than a million go to foreign lands for lengthy stays.
But picking up and moving to another country feels like a step into the void. Where to go? How to begin? What to do?
Volume 2 of the Process Self-Reliance Series, this smartly designed two-color guidebook walks you through the world of the expat: the reasons, the rules, the resources, and the tricks of the trade, along with compelling stories and expertise from expatriate Americans on every continent.
Getting Out shows you where you can most easily gain residence, citizenship, or work permits; where can you live for a fraction of the cost of where you're living now; and what countries would be most compatible with your lifestyle, gender, age, or political beliefs.
So if you've had enough of what they're selling here and want to take your life elsewhere-well, isn't that the American way? At any rate, it's not illegal. Not yet, anyway.
Customer Reviews:
So Informative.......2007-05-17
This book was written so well. It covers everything you will need to know about getting out, most importantly, legal issues and taxation. The educated and intellectuals of America are smart enough to realize what is going on - and they are GETTING OUT.
All the info........2007-03-07
I spent a couple of weeks just skipping through different parts of this book, and I don't regret it. It's like cruising through a buffet of food that you really like. Then I sat down and read it cover to cover. I learned a lot, I appreciated the many web resources that it presented, and I am much more prepared for my future move. A good tool for those of us that love our country, deplore our government, and need the best chance at survival for us and our families.
Very well done........2007-02-24
This was an incredibly fun book to read. I agree with other reviewers - this book covers a lot without going too deep in any one thing. But it does contain several references to outside sources which have more information.
It is as much a motivational book as a how-to.
Also, I found some of the most useful information in here to be the many letters from people who had already made the jump and were living abroad.
A good place to start.......2007-01-25
The strength of this book is that it favors breadth rather than depth.
If you are thinking about leaving the US but don't really know where you'd like to go, or if you have a destination in mind but don't really know what you don't know about emigration, this book is for you. Getting Out covers the top 50 destinations for US expats, with information about the quality of health care, cost and standard of living, and social permissiveness. Also included are brief accounts of the experiences of expats living around the world. There is also good general information about the different pathways available to the potential expat.
Reading it will definately leave you with more questions than answers, since any comprehensive emigration/immigration guide to all the countries in the world would fill a small library. Getting Out will give you the basics and point you in the right direction to find more in-depth information. You won't find anything here that will help you decide to settle in one country over another, but it will help you either narrow your list or give you reason to consider some place you otherwise would not have.
Great place to Start.......2007-01-23
My boyfriend and I have been talking about moving out of the states, if just for a few years. I found this book to be very user friendly - it doesn't drag on with just the boring facts & it has a lot of real life examples from people who have moved out. It gives a ton of useful websites, and some information about each of the 50 countries that are most popular with expats. It was very enjoyable to read this book cover to cover.
Average customer rating:
- Great, real deep
- I guess it depends on what you are looking for
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The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border
David Bacon
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Similar Items:
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The Case Against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and the Globalization of Corporate Power (An Earth Island Press Book)
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Communities without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration
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ASIN: 0520237781 |
Book Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date.
Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Download Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date. Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Customer Reviews:
Great, real deep.......2007-04-15
Struggle and hope. That's what I thought of this May the 1st of 2006, when seemingly millions of people across the US, mainly Latinos, rallied to support so-called illegal immigrants. These immigrants have literally spent a long time struggling both in the nations they came from and here in the US as business people get rich from their labor. But that day there was hope. In this day of globalization where corporations have the ultimate freedom to cross borders at will in the search for higher and higher profits, while workers cannot without becoming "illegals", it was a day that seemed to signify that "Si, se peude!" They stood up to a government punishing its own people trying to escape a poverty created by the economic policies created by that very government.
What exactly is going on at the US-Mexican border? It seems so far away to me, but in a town I grew up near, you can see the backlash and blame on immigrants for US citizens losing jobs to what is really that fault of neo-liberal attacks like NAFTA. In Hazleton, PA (about 45 minutes from my native Carbondale), some of the most draconian laws against immigrants ever passed sailed through recently. But it all comes back to the border. It turns out that Mexican immigrants are not so docile after all,and that they, just like any people who have been wronged over and over, will stand up for themselves. David Bacon, a labor journalist who works for the Nation, illustrates this well in "The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U. S./Mexico Border".
Bacon looks at what exactly is happening on the border. He starts by exploring the grape pickers of Southern California. Most had come to the US to seek higher wages than they could have possibly gotten in Mexico. But after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association), the companies at which they had won better wages after decades of fights with the Caesar Chavez's United Farm Workers (UFW), many suddenly found that they lost these jobs as they moved to Mexico's Mexicali Valley where they could pay those workers as much as a third less than the mainly Mexican immigrants in the US. In the Mexicali Valley, farmworkers (who often bring their children to the fields since there is no affordable school or daycare) could barely afford to pay their bills or get groceries, leading to many families sharing homes in order to pool their resources.
Along this same border has risen the infamous Maquiladora (duty-free and union-free factories) industry, which is now a global term but originated as a term for clothing manufacturers along the US-Mexico border. These have swelled since NAFTA, and one of the allures is that it is very hard to form an independent union in Mexico. However, Bacon illustrates that over the past decade of NAFTA Mexico, several independent unions have arisen in the face of a hostile ruling PRI, and then PAN, governments. At the same time, US unions have begun to pull away from their former cold-war, anti-communist sentiment and have slowly recognized that American workers and Mexican workers both lose because of NAFTA and that they must work together in order to survive, The UE, (United Electrical), an independent union, sent the first support to the new independent unions and conducted co-campaigns on the border to organize Maquiladoras into unions to demand better conditions and wages. Interestingly enough, it also began the question of shifting their tactics, since while US unions usually pressure companies until they can win or get some of their goals, Mexican unions usually see the government as their main enemy since the Mexican government maintains industry control over wages and will often not let companies raise wages if it will effect an entire industry (another reason US companies like moving to Mexico).
Some of the stuff in this book honestly was shocking how far 1st world companies would go to crush 3rd world workers. There are countless stories in "Children of NAFTA" of brutal beatings of union organizers. They (factory managers) shipped in temps in many stories to vote for the company government-sanctioned union in factory-wide elections, which too seemed many times to galvanize Maquiladora workers against the management. Black-lists, revenge wage-reductions, and brutal attacks on factory workers' pro-union demonstrations almost made reading it unbearable. However, as the labor organizers learned to deal with NAFTA, the one thing I came away from is that the only hope that we human beings fighting for a better future for our children have is that we can never turn our backs on anyone in a struggle. If global corporations can be everywhere, labor unions must be too. While we engage in these struggles locally, our minds must think globally, as the phrase goes.
I guess it depends on what you are looking for.......2005-10-20
If you are looking for a biased account of the human tragedy that is Mexican labor, this might be the book for you.
If you are looking for a analysis of what is happening and WHY. You may be disappointed.
David Bacon clearly wishes that he was the Saul Alinsky of Mexico. If you don't know who Saul Alinsky is, you may have just found your next reading subject.
It's not that its poorly written. It is just not impressive in any way. If you can't get enough of Mexico or if you need something to read between globalization protests, you will love it. But its hard to just jump in with an open mind and not be disappointed.
Average customer rating:
- Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker
- Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor
- An often unseen vantage point
- Outstanding book
- Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans
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Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens
Ted Conover
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0394755189
Release Date: 1987-08-12 |
Customer Reviews:
Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker.......2007-03-21
This is one of a handful of books recently written where the author joins a group of undocumented workers crossing the border in attempt to gain employment in the United States. The interesting twist here is that the author, though apparently fluent in Spanish, is white. He also attempts to work in the fields himself, as opposed to simply observing and writing about the work of others. This leads to a number of unique experiences and observations on race relations that are rarely discussed in this context. It also allows the reader to better understand what life is like for many undocumented workers in this country. Kudos to Ted Conover for making a sincere effort to better understand the lives of those that would not otherwise be recorded.
Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor.......2007-01-10
This story rivets the reader to the writer's acceptance (guarded) by poor Hispanics as he seeks to be an Imbed with them when they cross the border at a couple of different sites. There was the interception by Mexican border police and their payoff; then life beyond the border on the way to nearby farms serviced by Coyotes (travel guides and job finders) and potato fields of Idaho (serviced by the same dependable families year after year).
It gives many glimpses of that struggle to pass on a better life to the kids.
The writer may influence many who would become investigative reporters.
An often unseen vantage point.......2006-09-30
This is an important book, particularly in today's charged political climate. It is very easy to deal in absolutes when one deals with abstract ideas, but what Conover does well, is to humanize those ideas. While many speak of illegal imigration, Conover speaks of specific imigrants. He shares their perspectives,not condemning them, not glorifying them, but merely letting them tell their stories.
Aditionally Conover is remarkable for the amount of energy he put into getting to know his subject. Half of the worth of the book is the story of the migrants, the other half certainly is Conover's own story.
Outstanding book.......2006-08-31
I live in Southern California, and work with and around illegal aliens (or undocumented workers) on a daily basis. This is one of the best works written by an Anglo-American on the subject I have read. Conover took the time to really get to know these people, and not just from an investigative point of view. He worked the fields with these men, lived as they did and currently do, and even took a beating for it. Actually knowing and physically feeling what these migrants do gives him credibility far beyond other reporters/journalists who ask only questions, and feel that they are "in depth" after spending a week with their "subjects". Conover makes his experience personal, and the reader feels like this is a story told over dinner. The next time you are at the grocery store, after reading this book, you'll have a greater appreciation for the bag of oranges you are buying, and the story behind them.
Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans.......2006-06-26
Written all the way back in the mid-1980s, long before all the heated rhetoric about illegal immigration going on in the US today, this book has turned out to be amazingly prescient. I feel like I would have had a much better understanding of this subject (not to mention appreciation of the people involved) had I discovered it a long time ago, but I suppose late is better than never.
Ted Conover did what I don't imagine very many other Americans would have the courage to do: Cross illegally from Mexico into the US with Mexicans doing the same thing. In doing so, he gives readers incredible insight into what compels some Mexicans to make that journey (i.e what life is like where they come from), what the journey is like, and what awaits them on this side of the border. I found myself exceedingly grateful for having been born American and simply in awe of the Mexicans who live such vastly disparate lives from their privileged neighbors to the north.
Conover simply relates his experiences to readers without the kind of ideological commentary or other editorializing that can get in the way of the facts surrounding the contentious issues involved. Coyotes is a well-written, touching, informative, and inspiring book that should be required reading for all Americans before they open their mouths about illegal immigration.
Book Description
The controversial, bestselling book (37,500 hardcover copies sold) that helps define the debate about one of the most important and hotly contested issues facing America: immigration.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating look at American immigration policy.......2007-01-15
Peter Brimelow's "Alien Nation," despite its reputation to the contrary, is an intensely scholarly book, a fact that reveals itself just a chapter or two in. Loaded with charts and end notes, there are few statements he is unable to document, making this a very worthwhile purchase for those interested in defending the cause of immigration control (as I am).
Brimelow opens with a lengthy introduction describing his own roots as a British immigrant. He quickly dispatches some of the more pedestrian one-liners trotted out by immigration enthusiasts, from simple (and intellectually cheap) allegations of racism to historically inaccurate paeans to American history. With the philosophical piffle out of the way, he goes on at length about the history of American immigration policy; of particular interest is the bit describing the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, which gave us our present immigration levels, particularly Senator Ted Kennedy's proclamation that the bill would not result in a million or more immigrants flooding American cities every year (more than a million do today, and Brimelow reports briefly on the mendacity and evasiveness of Kennedy's designated immigration aide when questioned about this fact; he also documents how Bobby Kennedy, one of the bill's chief supporters, fell to the bullet of an immigrant who benefitted directly from it).
Brimelow proceeds to dismantle, chapter by chapter, many of the illusions surrounding current immigration policy, addressing its demonstrable consequences on American economics, politics, culture, environment, and social cohesion.
Despite the heavy academic value of the book, Brimelow writes with sufficient sing-song mockery of the open borders lobby, whose weasly self-interested justifications he obviously takes great pleasure in disarming, to make it an interesting read. Some of the early chapters seem to drag on a bit, but once you get rolling, it's hard to put down.
This is a virtual must-read for all people with a stake in the grassroots immigration control movement.
Mostly good. All food for thought.......2006-11-12
I find it interesting that those reviling the book pretty much say "he's a racist bigot" and think that is a response to the ideas raised. I find little or no analysis of what Mr. Brimelow actually says in those rants. Just one example is a series of commments along the lines of "America is a nation of immigrants and has done just fine -- anyone opposed to further immigration is a (fill in the blank) [racist, hypocrite, etc.]"
Brimelow actually goes to great lengths to discuss this issue;
1. ALL nations are nations of immigrants, it's just that their immigration was quite gradual. Even the US (until recently) had a more gradual immigration pattern with periods of time between waves for assimilation.
2. There is currently no "resting period" for the new immigrants to assimilate.
3. There is now an active movement OPPOSED to assimilation (the cultural diversity folks).
4. This lack of assimilation is encouraged by the movement for bilingual education.
(He gives a sadly amusing story of the child of an acquaintance being pushed into classes taught in Spanish (New York City school system) because his first name was "Pablo." This despite the fact that neither he nor his parents spoke Spanish. This little factlet (his not being a Spanish speaker) was something that had not occured to those who in their zeal for multiculturalism were practicing an interesting form of racism.)
5. He then discusses the problems that arise from a failure to assimilate and the political and economic fallout of such.
This idea is further explored in Brimelow's discussion of the difference between "state," "nation," "polity," and other similar terms.
Brimelow discusses many areas of concern: social, political, economic, and cultural -- and many issues within each. For the most part I found his reasoning thoughtful and well-considered. I found particularly noteworthy his discussion of some of the commonly touted (and extremely positive) statistics on immigrant's economic contributions to the U.S. and how those measures are grievously skewed by the way the data is gathered and defined. He gives a detailed cost/benefit analysis of current immigration patterns and comes to very different conclusions.
While I did not agree with all this book says, I found much of it food for thought. Those disagreeing need to do more than name calling. Perhaps actually reading the book would be a good place to start.
Lessons not learned.......2006-04-18
Ten years ago, the paperback edition of "Alien Nation" came out in print. While some of the numbers may be off (the number of illegals doubled from than of 1996) the basic message remains. The Federal government has no interest in protecting the original character of the United States - namely, as a European republic. It has and continued to act against the interests of the race that that carved out a civilization superseding previous European civilizations. Peter Brimelow's book deserves a second reading, particularly in the midst of the current (one-sided) immigration debate that Congress desperately wants to avoid.
There are the myopic many that love tacos, curry and Thai noodles -- the raging cheerleaders of the "open borders" gang. However, they immediately shut up when the sieve that is our current immigration policy allows Middle Easterners to bomb or crash planes into our buildings. They turn a deaf ear to the fact that greedy businesses hire illegals at firesale wages and boost their own profits. Indeed, the strident open border crowd hasn't said anything about the recent massive demonstrations by Mexican flag waving illegal mestizos and non-white Hispanics -- other than "let them all in!". Senators Kennedy's and Javitz's pronouncement of 1965 was proven wrong: America's has dramatically changed and for the worse. The "Irish beer" swilling, taco eating Americans have learned nothing.
For those that protest too much.......2006-02-27
This is my favorite book to stir the blood to the point of boiling. It gets to the heart of the matter. Many facts about laws and policy. You begin to think your a stranger in a strange land, just short of Alice In Wonderland. And as Daffy Duck would say," Its dissspicccabbllle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IGNORANT AND NARROW MINDED IDEOLOGY FOR THE ENLIGHTENED BIGOTS EVERYWHERE!!.......2006-01-08
IN THIS ERA OF GLOBALIZATION WHERE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RULES THE WORLD. DOES AMERICA GET THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST MINDS. YES, THROUGH LEGAL IMMIGRATION IT DOES AND IS TREMENDOUSLY BENEFEITED.ARE THERE MASSIVE PROBLEMS DUE TO ILLIGAL IMMIGRATION. YES, AND IT NEEDS TO BE CHECKED. DOES THIS MEAN ALL IMMIGRATION SHOULD BE STOPPED? AMERICAN COLLEGES,COMPANIES,SOCIETY AND IN THE END THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL SUFFER DUE TO MEDIOCRE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST. EINSTEIN WAS AN IMMIGRANT 60 YEARS BACK. SO WAS THE FOUNDER OF HOTMAIL FROM INDIA. SHOULD PEOPLE LIKE THAT SHOULD BE RESTRICED SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE NON-WHITE AND NON CHRISTIAN? WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE BELOW AVERAGE ENGINEERS,DOCTORS,MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AS LONG THEY ARE NATIVE-BORN AND WHITE? WHAT HAPPENED TO A JOB GOING TO THE BEST PEOPLE INSTEAD OF POLITICAL APPEASING TO THE NATIVE ELEMENTS. THIS EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED 100 YEARS BACKS WITH A STRONG BACKLASH AGAINST THE IRISH AND ITALIANS. WHO WERE FOR THE MOST PART POOR AND UNEDUCATED AND COMPETING WITH THE NATIVES. THEY WERE ALSO DEMONIZED AND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.WE ALL CAN FORM ALL OWN CONCLUSIONS AND CONFRONT THE INNATE XENOPHOBIA,BIGOTORY AND UNDERLYING BIAS IN A POST 9-11 WORLD REGARDING THESE MATTERS OR CANNOT WE?
Average customer rating:
- When is the next one?
- An Engaging CSI vs. Extraterrestrial Invasion Whodunit
- Second Contact
- Too much of a good thing
- What a waste
|
Outer Perimeter
Ken Goddard
Manufacturer: Bantam
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First Evidence
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Double Blind
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Prey
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ASIN: 0553108832
Release Date: 2001-01-30 |
Amazon.com
With Outer Perimeter, Ken Goddard, the author of seven previous novels of suspense and science fiction beginning with 1983's Balefire, returns to the Oregon of his 1999 SF thriller, First Evidence. And he's brought the disgraced crime scene investigator, Detective Sergeant Colin Cellars of the Oregon State Police, and his shape-shifting, silicon-based, extraterrestrial life forms with him.
Cellars, understandably, isn't in tight with his superiors just now. It seems that he and some friends (Bobby Dawson, forensic scientist and Cellars's erstwhile girlfriend Jody Catlin, and the NSA's Dr. Malcolm Byzor) recently blasted to smithereens a slew of police vehicles. They explained that the whole thing wouldn't have happened if they had not been in a life-or-death struggle with invisible, immensely intelligent, coldly murderous space aliens with half a mind to destroy civilization unless they reclaim some missing baggage.
Still, some 50 locals have disappeared, officers have been killed or nearly killed, DEA agents are lurking about, and the NSA has set up housekeeping in a "black operation" in the nearby piney woods. With that, OSP Internal Affairs Commander Hightower and watch commander Bauer have little choice but to turn Cellars and his coconspirators loose--but they ask him to please not rewrite those reports.
Cellars' eyebrows furrowed in surprise. "Why not?"
"Think about it. At the moment, given the discussion she and I just had with [police psychologist] Pleausant before you got here, there's no official reason why we can't put you back on the street immediately, and there's every good reason why we should. But if you were to write and sign an official report in which you claim to have killed a shape-changing extraterrestrial who immediately morphed into a small rock--"
"Ah."
A reasonably well-written (excepting a ridiculously expository phone conversation early on) if standard outing, this occasionally humorous, mostly engaging, and sometimes downright suspenseful book will, if nothing else, encourage you to revisit those early X-Files episodes you've been meaning to watch. --Michael Hudson
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Ken Goddard combines a stirring mystery and an exhilarating forensic thriller in this stunning follow-up to his critically acclaimed novel
First Evidence. Here crime scene investigator Colin Cellars continues to pursue the truth behind the bizarre occurrences that so recently turned his life upside down, and his desperate hunt for a killer makes him deadly enemies on both sides of the law....
A man of reason and science, Colin Cellars has earned a reputation as a top crime scene investigator by using microscopic fragments of evidence to fill in the crucial missing pieces of a crime. But Cellars now finds himself disgraced because of a bizarre and violent episode -- an erotically charged encounter with a beautiful woman that led to a horrifying shoot-out right in front of his eyes. And what Cellars thinks he knows about the victim's identity -- and about her death -- has plunged him into a no-man's-land ... and a deadly search for a killer who may or may not be quite of this world.
Meanwhile, as Cellars investigates a case involving dozens of missing victims and a constantly vanishing trail of evidence, he realizes that the three people he trusts most each hold a piece to the puzzle -- one that includes evidence that defies all known technical analysis. And these three individuals -- the woman he loves, a man he has defended with his life, and a friend with ties to the most clandestine wing of the U.S. government -- seem to have their own ideas about what to do with the information.
As Cellars and his team get closer to the truth, the stakes continue to rise. For the hunters are about to become the hunted: victims of a deadly game whose rules they can't understand, whose players they cannot predict. And their few advantages are rapidly disappearing.
A novel of relentless suspense that ranges from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the secret high-tech laboratories of the NSA,
Outer Perimeter is a stunningly vivid, fast-paced tale in which nothing is as it appears and the facts point to conclusions that seem all but impossible. Most of all, it is a chilling and unforgettable voyage that takes readers through tunnels of violence and intrigue -- and out into the unknown....
Customer Reviews:
When is the next one?.......2006-02-19
I really enjoyed this read.You really put a lot of excitement into your books, Mr. Goddard.Please e-mail me as to when your next part of this series is coming out.Thank-you
An Engaging CSI vs. Extraterrestrial Invasion Whodunit.......2005-12-16
This is my second book by Goddard that I have read - this one being the sequel to his earlier First Evidence book about First Contact with an alien species. I had this book for a long time before I finally started to read it and once I did, I moved through it more quickly than I had suspected I would. I found this book to be more engaging than his first story, probably because I knew the underlying premise. This story set in Oregon where a cop who is a CSI guy worries about being attacked by some alien baddies and runs around trying to deal with their activities to regain their lost alien comrades.
With the recent successfull TV series about CSI stuff, this book matched well and perhaps better with the current CSI interest. Characters were believable and the story flowed well. My only disappointment was in the ending, in that like a lot of books and authors, the end came too quickly and seemed to beg more. It was not an ending that made you feel like a sequel was hiding there, it just seemed to lack a satisfying ending.
That said, I still found this book very entertaining and thus my 4-star score.
Second Contact.......2002-07-18
Being the sequel to one of the most suspenseful books I've ever read, (First Evidence) I expected a lot. I didn't get quite what I expected but it was an engaging read. For the most part, this book fills in the gaps from "First Evidence." It explains a lot and makes you go, "Oh yeah." You must, however, read the first book or you will be lost. "Outer Perimeter" started slow but built it's intrigue bit by bit. Several times, I thought of putting it down but it finally grabbed me. Most books fizzle by the last third. This one takes off like a UFO! The ending didn't grab me but it makes me think he may be thinking of writing another one. (Sidenote: It's interesting that three recent novels all have "black panthers/jaguars" as a nemesis.
Have I missed a wildlife trend?)
Too much of a good thing.......2002-03-04
I thoroughly enjoyed "First Evidence" and anxiously awaited the sequel. "Outer Perimiter" was good, but the plot was too dependent on "First Evidence". If you haven't read the first book, this one will not make much sense. I find the plot of this "series" interesting and exciting, and most of the characters well developed. However I was hoping that "Outer Perimeter would advance the plot more than it did. About half of the book was a retelling of events in the first installment. Mr. Goddard is an excellent writer and has provided many great thriller stories. This plot line has great potential. I hope the next installment, if there is one, will advance the plot and provide closure to some of the plot lines.
What a waste.......2002-02-19
This was by far the worst book I have ever read. I can hardly believe a publisher actually thought it was worthy to publish. The plot is ludicrous and loosely strung along. I only finished this book simply because I had to see if the ending was as innane as the rest of the book. It was.
Book Description
The Southwestern border is one of the most fascinating places in America, a region of rugged beauty and small communities that coexist across the international line. In the past decade, the area has also become deadly as illegal immigration has shifted into some of the harshest territory on the continent, reshaping life on both sides of the border.
In Hard Line
, Ken Ellingwood, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, captures the heart of this complex and fascinating land, through the dramatic stories of undocumented immigrants and the border agents who track them through the desert, Native Americans divided between two countries, human rights workers aiding the migrants
and ranchers taking the law into their own hands. This is a vivid portrait of a place and its people, and a moving story of the West that has major implications for the nation as a whole.
Books:
- Telling Ain't Training
- The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God
- The Areas of My Expertise
- The Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being
- The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Never Has the Magic Been So Real (Radio Theatre) [Full Cast Drama]
- The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers
- The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining
- The Glass Castle: A Memoir
- The Gloom Looms: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 10-12 (The Slippery Slope; The Grim Grotto; The Penultimate Peril)
Books Index
Books Home
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In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security
Culture Warrior
War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back
Godless: The Church of Liberalism
America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
