I'm currently writing a historiographical paper over immigration in the United States, and after debating upon different sources for doing three paradigm shifts have hit a dead-lock on the subject, as this is the first time I have ever written a history paper. I've been mainly focusing on demographics, but realized that they may not be what I should be focusing on as the topic of my paper was too broad when at that stage, when I was there I was going to use the following literature,
The Atlantic Migration - Marcus Lee Hansen
Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism - John Higham
The One and the Many: Reflections on the American Identity. - Arthur Mann
Old World Traits Transplanted - Robert E. Park & Miller A. Herbert
Letters from An American Farmer: And Other Essays - St John De Crevecoeur
Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics. -Virginia Yans-McLaughlin
After reading these works, I realized that they were too broad for the work in general, and now I am struggling to find books from orthodox, revisionist, and post-revisionist views to support the idea of why America closes its doors. If someone could help out in any fashion, or just in general point me in a good direction, you would have my eternal thanks. Or even suggestions on differing topics that could be easier, as my overall topic is "immigration" for the United States.
Here's an update to where I am at,
I've switched from closing doors to the assimilation-pluralism dichotomy debate, and have chosen the following literature to support it through three paradigm shifts.
1st Paradigm
Becoming American : an ethnic history / Thomas J. Archdeacon. New York: Free Press ; London : Collier Macmillan, [1983]
Sincerity and Authenticity / Lionel Trilling. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, [1973, c1972]
2nd Paradigm
Assimilation, American style / Peter D. Salins. New York: Basic Books, [1997]
Beyond white ethnicity: developing a sociological understanding of Native American identity and reclamation / Kathleen J. Fitzgerald. Lanham: Lexington Books, [2007]
3rd Paradigm
Disciplinary Spaces : Spatial Control, Forced Assimilation and Narratives of Progress since the 19th Century / Sophie Wagenhofer, Andrea Fischer-Tahir. Bielefeld : transcript-Verlag, [2017]
Blood will tell: Native Americans and asimilation policy / Katherine Ellinghaus. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2017]
The first paradigm indicates a approach for inclusion for assimilation, whilst the second paradigm gives the reasoning that they combine there culture and the naturalization process. The third revisits these, but also shows that these things were implemented through the altering of behavior and dis-empowering of these individuals to allow for assimilation.
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