Why read White by Law?

Book cover of White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race

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Why read it?

1 author picked White by Law as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Benjamin C. Montoya

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I love this book because it tears apart any idea of objectivity in the law’s treatment of race and citizenship in US history. It argues that law plays a crucial role in creating racial categories. Far from fixed and predetermined, notions of race were constructed by courts throughout US history to determine whether persons were white enough to be included in the polity.

While this book does not specifically address Mexican immigration it is, nevertheless, immensely important to the study of US immigration history because of how it treats the law as a contested space. The law is not an…

From Benjamin's list on The best books to understand the complicated history of Mexican immigration to the United States.