Postwar prosperity and labor hunger smothered nativism for two decades

Evidence

The statute did not long outlive the war that produced it, but the population hunger behind it grew more imperious than ever in the following years. The immigrant might not have retained his wartime laurels for long if his peacetime services had not loomed so large. As it was, the Civil War inaugurated an era of immense industrial, agricultural, and geographical expansion, in which the hundreds of thousands of annual arrivals from across the Atlantic seemed a national blessing. For two decades after Appomattox the summons to enrichment and opportunity smothered any serious nativist challenge. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 88

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for reader’s research question about what sustains and decays manufactured solidarity — here economic expansion deflates it without materialist change needed. — connects to: Nativism surged in prosperity decades, defeating economic explanations — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 2027; Industrialists abandoned nativism once immigrant labor seemed docile — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1389; The removal of economic threat deflated nativism regardless of rising immigration — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 618 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Nativism surged in prosperity decades, defeating economic explanations #contradicts (0.88) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 2027
• The removal of economic threat deflated nativism regardless of rising immigration #expands (0.82) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 618
• Nativism can collapse even as the immigrant influx it fears soars #expands (0.79) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 644
• Industrialists abandoned nativism once immigrant labor seemed docile #contradicts (0.72) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1389