Research project: Immigration Restriction Campaign 1920s - newspaper opinions
In 1924, Congress passed the most restrictive immigration laws ever enacted. This followed years of agitation by politicians, social movements, and newspapers. The assignment is to assess the newspaper opinions in the years leading up to the path-breaking legislation. You will read articles and editorials from a number of newspapers and explore their reasoning and arguments. (1) read primary sources (historic newspapers) and record information in an excel database. (2) read a recommended secondary source below; (3) write a 8-10 page paper about your subject using information from both the secondary and primary sources
Research questions: How popular was the campaign for severe immigration restriction as registered in the newspapers you can access? What arguments were made in favor? Against? Which newspapers were most adamant? Did the Black-owned newspapers take strong positions?
Primary source research (newspapers):
1) Begin by downloading this research database-excel-1.xlsx Download research database-excel-1.xlsx
2) We are using ProQuest Historical Newspapers for newspaper searches. Below is the link to the pre-arranged databases of newspaper articles that you should use. It delivers articles from newspapers and magazines related to this topic.
a) you should see a page like this. If not, you may need to click the Library's login button top right and enter your UW-net ID
b) scroll the titles of articles, clicking on those that seem most relevant. Some will be mistaken entries triggered by the search terms. Others will be too short to be useful. Download copies of all articles that might be useful or interesting. It is more efficient to download them than to read them in ProQuest.
c) use "back to results" to return to the search results.
d) you can filter results using the menus on left side. Sorted by "oldest first" means the entries are in chronological order. "Relevance" is the other option. You can also open the Publication title menu and select articles from particular newspapers.
3) After downloading many articles, add at least 20 to your research database-excel-1.xlsx Download research database-excel-1.xlsx and write a short description of the event or issue described in each article. Feel free to add additional information in other columns. Your spreadsheet needs to include no less than 20 articles. You will submit the research database along with your paper.
4) Please DO NOT save or delete the ProQuest search. Others will not be able to use it.
Secondary source research (books):
5) Obtain and read one or more books. Several are listed below. Others can be identified in UW Library catalog http://www.lib.washington.edu/
eBook:
Strangers in the land: patterns of American nativism, 1860-1925 (Links to an external site.)
by John Higham
America for the Americans : the nativist movement in the United States
Links to an external site.
by Dale T. Knobel, (eBook through Hathi Trust)
Print Books:
Guarding the golden door: American immigration policy and immigrants since 1882
by Roger Daniels (Odegaard Library course reserves)