You Are Not American

Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers

By: Amanda Frost

Narrated by: Dana Stoutenburg

Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize

Citizenship is invaluable, yet our status as citizens is always at risk—even for those born on US soil.

Over the last two centuries, the US government has revoked citizenship to cast out its unwanted, suppress dissent, and deny civil rights to all considered “un-American”—whether due to their race, ethnicity, marriage partner, or beliefs. Drawing on the narratives of those who have struggled to be treated as full members of “We the People,” law professor Amanda Frost exposes a hidden history of discrimination and xenophobia that continues to this day.

The Supreme Court’s rejection of Black citizenship in Dred Scott was among the first and most notorious examples of citizenship stripping, but the phenomenon did not end there. Women who married noncitizens, persecuted racial groups, labor leaders, and political activists were all denied their citizenship, and sometimes deported, by a government that wanted to redefine the meaning of “American.” Today, US citizens living near the southern border are regularly denied passports, thousands are detained and deported by mistake, and the Trump administration is investigating the citizenship of 700,000 naturalized citizens. Even elected leaders such as Barack Obama and Kamala Harris are not immune from false claims that they are not citizens eligible to hold office.

You Are Not American grapples with what it means to be American and the issues surrounding membership, identity, belonging, and exclusion that still occupy and divide the nation in the twenty-first century.

Must read!!!

Highly recommend, very educational and eye opening on the struggles of citizenship. These book helps inform the current challenges and today’s attack on immigrants and the claims of birth-right citizenship.

I think what stood out the most was the knowledge through so many different eras of history

Really liked the length, finished it in one week and it covered a brief summary of each type of citizen, so the concept was very well executed. No negative comments, only a quick plea for another book because the language and theme was great!