One Mighty and Irresistible Tide by Jia Lynn Yang

In 1924, the U.S. Congress enacted quotas on immigration that essentially forbade migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. In this compelling political and personal history, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jia Lynn Yang chronicles the efforts of a small, oft-forgotten collection of elected officials and activists who worked to make America a nation of immigrants again. The result of their work was the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which dramatically loosened the restrictions—and allowed Yang’s family to leave Taiwan the following decade and begin their own American story.

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