Monday, October 18, 2021

October 27th Virtual Author Talk: Reece Jones

Join us in partnership with the Boston Public Library and the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library (LMEC) for an online talk with Reece Jones, author of White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall. Jones will be in conversation with Garrett Dash Nelson, President & Head Curator, LMEC.

With his newest book, White Borders, Reece Jones reveals that although the United States is often mythologized as a nation of immigrants, it has a long history of immigration restrictions that are rooted in the racist fear of the “great replacement” of whites with non-white immigrants. Connecting past to present, Jones uncovers the link between the Chinese Exclusion laws of the 1880s, the “Keep America American” nativism of the 1920s, and the “Build the Wall” chants initiated by former president Trump in 2016. Through gripping stories and in-depth analysis, Jones exposes the lasting impacts of white supremacist ideas on United States law.

Reece Jones is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and a professor in and the chair of the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai‘i. He has researched immigration for over twenty years and is the author of Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel and Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move, as well as over two dozen journal articles and four edited books. He is editor in chief of the journal Geopolitics and lives in Honolulu with his family. Connect with him on Twitter at @ReeceJonesUH.

To register for this free online event, please visit the following link: 

To purchase this book from Trident Booksellers & Café, please visit the following link and use the code BPLSHIP for free media mail delivery!

And be sure to check out other upcoming events hosted by our partners! 


Author Talks Committee
State Library of Massachusetts


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