Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

Author:	Lalami, Laila
Binding:	Hardcover
List Price:	$25.95
Our Price:	$1.88 USD
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Additional Info
Overview

ISBN:	9781524747169
Publisher:	Pantheon Books
Language:	English
Page Count:	191
Publication Date:	9/22/2020
Size:	8.59" l x 5.81" w x 0.98"
Series:	N/A

Category	Subject
Political Science	Civics & Citizenship
Social Science	Islamic Studies

What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize–finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth—such as national origin, race, and gender—that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today.

Lalami poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, with the result that a caste system is maintained that keeps the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens, she argues, are all the people with whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.

Brilliantly argued and deeply personal, Conditional Citizens weaves together Lalami’s own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.