UC Press author Peter Schrag was among the honorees at the Berkeley Public Library Foundation’s 9th Annual Authors Dinner. Also on the guest list were Burton Richter, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Eggers, Yiyun Li, Markos Moulitsas, Raj Patel, Tobias Wolff, and Jaron Lanier. The dinner, which is the major fundraising event for the BPLF, raised $110,000 in support of branch infrastructure, according to the Chronicle’s Catherine Bigelow.
Schrag’s book Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America is a timely history of the political movements that have sought to restrict immigration to the United States. Covering the earliest days of the Republic to current events, Schrag sets the modern immigration controversy within the context of three centuries of debate over the same questions about who exactly is fit for citizenship. UC Press will release the paperback edition in July 2011.
