Racial nativism matured only when public confidence recovered

Evidence

Ironically and significantly, it was not until the beginning of the present century, when public opinion recovered much of its accustomed confidence, that racial nativism reached intellectual maturity. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 762

Categorization

• QUESTION: Higham says racial nativism needed public confidence rather than anxiety — surprising and worth chasing: does manufactured animus to a racialized enemy require societal confidence?
• XREF: connects to: Confidence in ordinary people’s capacity tended to counteract nativism before 1910 — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 682; Racial nativism grew only when it fixed on an identifiable new immigrant type — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 832; Institutional confidence loss, not ethnic competition, drives nativism to the national agenda (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial nativism grew only when it fixed on an identifiable new immigrant type #expands (0.82) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 832
• National confidence and optimism suppressed racial fear of European immigrants #contradicts (0.82) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 201
• Institutional confidence loss, not ethnic competition, drives nativism to the national agenda #corroborates (0.78)