Alan Kraut's Silent Travelers (950 words)

Throughout the semester, we've attempted to combine the social and political aspects of American history as best as a semester might allow. One of the books you were encouraged to read was Alan Kraut's Silent Travelers. In a well developed and well thought out essay, please discuss three ways in which Kraut's main ideas directly or indirectly reflect the reality that is American society at the turn of the 21st century (i.e, 1990-2015 approximately). Please make sure you have read and assimilated the basic crux of Kraut's theme before attempting to write this assignment.

Keep your writing simple, but not simplistic.

Contextualize and historicize the events and people you discuss.

Make sure you proofread for grammar and spelling.

Alan M. Kraut, in his remarkable work, Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes and the Immigrant Menace, has focused on the immigrants issue from a unique medical prejudiced perspective. His contention is that the immigrants are looked down upon because they are regarded as the bearers of disease. So, beside the racial and ethnic attitude, the medical concerns also shaped the attitude of the Americans toward the migrants. He lays out the dichotomy that America needed people to perform low labour jobs, but despised the very same people who tried to fill that gap. Coming from an immigrant background himself, grandson of a tailor, he is able to relate to the dilemma immigrants faced in the American society.
Kraut argues that “the double helix of health and fear remains encoded in American society and culture reappearing in patterns fresh but familiar.” (p.8) America has witnessed...

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