A01=Hannah E. Zaves-Greene
Author_Hannah E. Zaves-Greene
Category=JBFH
Category=JBFM
Category=JBSR
Category=NHTB
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
Product details
- ISBN 9781469697772
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2026
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Epilepsy. Heart disease. Varicose veins. “Feeble-mindedness.” In 1891, Congress unambiguously codified the popular sentiment that “defects” like these should preclude admission to the United States. Expanding the eugenics-rooted restrictions of the 1882 Immigration Act, the new law conflated illness, poverty, and disability with criminality and “moral turpitude,” starkly revealing Congress’s vision of the “ideal” American. Simultaneously, American Jews sought security and acceptance in the United States. In confronting these fraught issues, they boldly asserted that they too had the right, knowledge, and ability to shape the meaning of American national belonging and, indeed, the fabric of the country itself.
Able to be American explores this tension, revealing how eugenic theories about illness and disability fundamentally shaped American society, government, and everyday life. As Jewish communal leaders contested the thorny relationship between perceived able-bodiedness and the “ability” to become American, they strove to reform federal immigration law and its implementation according to their own visions for what the United States could become. Hannah Zaves-Greene’s groundbreaking and richly sourced analysis weaves together archival documents, government records, and captivating case studies, exposing enduring truths about exclusion, belonging, democracy, and citizenship at this watershed moment in US history.
Able to be American explores this tension, revealing how eugenic theories about illness and disability fundamentally shaped American society, government, and everyday life. As Jewish communal leaders contested the thorny relationship between perceived able-bodiedness and the “ability” to become American, they strove to reform federal immigration law and its implementation according to their own visions for what the United States could become. Hannah Zaves-Greene’s groundbreaking and richly sourced analysis weaves together archival documents, government records, and captivating case studies, exposing enduring truths about exclusion, belonging, democracy, and citizenship at this watershed moment in US history.
Hannah E. Zaves-Greene is currently a Bernard and Audre Rapoport research fellow at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
