That is why the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Harper Perennial are reissuing this landmark essay on the contribution of immigrants to American society.  With a new introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants (Harper Perennial, January 2008) offers inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America.

"The reissuing of A Nation of Immigrants on its 50th anniversary is not only commemorative but has great relevance for us today," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director writes in the Foreword to the new edition.  "Then, as now, nativism, bigotry and fear of competition from foreign labor were dulling the collective American memory of its own immigrant history and its ideals," writes Mr. Foxman. "Then, as now, hate groups were beating the drums of anti-foreigner slogans and tried to sway the public and elected officials toward a restrictive immigration policy."

A Nation of Immigrants was written by Kennedy in 1958 after ADL reached out to the then-junior senator from Massachusetts asking him to highlight the contribution of immigrants at a time when the country was locked in a debate about the direction its policy should take.  As the last manuscript President Kennedy ever wrote, the book was first published posthumously. 

"The history of this monograph is deeply intertwined with the story of America's struggle for a fair and compassionate immigration policy," said Mr. Foxman.

Through ADL's network of 30 regional offices, there will be a series of local programs and events centered around the release of the new book and the Introduction and Foreword.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who has been at the forefront of calls for meaningful immigration, has described his brother's essay as a seminal document in the struggle for immigration reform.

"Every time the Senate takes up the issue of immigration reform, I re-read my brother's book for inspiration," Senator Kennedy said last year in remarks to ADL's National Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.   "The words he wrote half a century ago ring just as true today."

In his essay, John F. Kennedy wrote of immigration: "This was the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a spacious society that did not restrict their freedom of choice and action."

About the Book

A Nation of Immigrants (Harper Perennial, $13.95), with a new introduction by Edward M. Kennedy and a Foreword by Abraham H. Foxman will be available in bookstores beginning January 8, 2008.  ADL's Web site features more information on the book, the author, a video of President Kennedy's historic address to ADL in 1963, and other interactive features.

About the Author