TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the book “America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States” written by Erika Lee has been released in Iranian bookstores across Iran.

Amir Mirhaj has translated the book that has been brought out by Ketabsaraye Tandis Publications in 384 pages, IRNA reported.

The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. In “America for Americans,” Erika Lee shows that irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants have been a defining feature of the nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. 

Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their “strange and foreign ways”. Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants were excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported.

Today, Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Forcing readers to confront this history, Lee explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America. 

Erika Lee is an award-winning historian and author, the inaugural Bae Family Professor of History, a position she began in July 2023, and a Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University. The granddaughter of Chinese immigrants, Lee was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and testified before Congress in its historic hearings on anti-Asian discrimination and violence.

In addition, she is still active as an award-winning author, known for her non-fiction work upon the subjects of immigration and Asian American history in America. Previously, she was the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

As an author, Lee is noted to have written five non-fiction books, for which she has received multiple awards such as the American Book Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

SS/SAB