Teddy Roosevelt - The Winning of the West
Read the first chapter:
1. What is TR focusing on?
2. What is his overall argument?
3.
What racial group does he see as being truly "American," and what
values and traditions does that group hold that have made it so
successful?
4. How does he view natives and blacks in the context of American history?
Finally read this quote:
Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes
here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us,
he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is
an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or
birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming
in every facet an American, and nothing but an American … There can be
no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but
something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one
flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and
that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty
and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
1. Is this idea racist? Can it square with the other views of immigration you read earlier?