Closing the Golden Door

Anna Pegler-Gordon is a professor in the James Madison College and the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Michigan State University.
For more information about Anna Pegler-Gordon, visit the Author Page.

"Pegler-Gordon deserves credit for taking on a very large subject and transforming it into a coherent and well-organized narrative. The chapter on the wartime confinement of Japanese aliens expands the larger literature on wartime Japanese confinement, especially works on the Department of Justice camps by authors such as Louis Fiset and Tetsuden Kashima. In our current age of official bans on immigration and refugees, it is worthwhile to have a historical insight into the management of marginalized aliens."—Nichi Bei

“Doing what Asian American and ethnic studies scholars do best, Pegler-Gordon challenges master narratives of American history by bringing forth the experiences of Asians knocking on Ellis Island’s Golden Door. This new Asian American narrative demands our attention.”—Evelyn Hu-DeHart, professor of history, American studies and ethnic studies, Brown University

"Ellis Island—famed immigrant gateway to the American dream—held a darker meaning for Chinese and Japanese migrants. With great care and insight, Pegler-Gordon reconstructs their harrowing experiences of smuggling, detainment, and internment in New York.”—Beth Lew-Williams, Princeton University

“Pegler-Gordon offers a novel and convincing case for understanding Ellis Island as a site for Asian immigration and deportation in the early twentieth century.”—Greg Robinson, Université du Québec a Montréal

"Pegler-Gordon deepens our understanding of the complex geographies of Asian American migration and immigrant detention. This book is steeped in the best traditions of social history.”—Ethan Blue, The University of Western Australia