When they invested in steamboats, railroads, roads, education, communication routes, and other infrastructure, Feliciana elites advanced the national and global transportation revolution. They used enslaved convict laborers to build railroads and to work on them. Meanwhile, small numbers of immigrants moved there, including German Jews in St. Francisville. They lived alongside free Black residents, a group who also occupied a precarious position. Some free Black people acquired property and exercised limited citizenship rights. This all rested on chattel slavery, and between 1800 and 1860 this region became central to the early republic and cotton production. But in this “Age of Emancipations,” these bondspersons survived, celebrated, and sometimes resisted.

In July 1866 Rachel Robins and Virgil Harrell married. After centuries of commoditized kinship, my grandmother’s grandfather celebrated citizenship by claiming kin. But emancipated people had a freedom vision that exceeded liberal ideology. As in other post-emancipation societies, many wanted land to become smallholders. They elected John Gair and other Black politicians. At great personal cost, they organized, voted, and armed to defend themselves against vigilante forces. But this couple and others learned the limits of liberal inclusion. Emancipation and enfranchisement set a new stage for an old conflict between people who believed in the power of democracy and those committed to white power over all else.

Chapter 4 considers how race and racism were presented in post-war television and film. Much of this chapter focuses on blacking-up practices on television, the success of The Black and White Minstrel Show with white audiences, and its defence by white producers, audiences and the press, when Black audiences in Britain protested against it in 1967 through the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD). It also traces the post-war life of the empire film content discussed in Chapter 2, when these films were consistently broadcast on both the BBC and ITV before the watershed and at ‘family viewing times’. The chapter also examines the broader enduring popularity of blacking-up practices on screen in the post-war period.

While the BBC and ITV consistently overlooked Black audiences in their audience research, Black audiences in Britain engaged in ongoing discussions about film and television content and its impact in the pages of Black magazines, what Donald Hinds referred to as the Black ‘glossies’. This chapter highlights the efforts of four Black periodicals, including Bronze, Checkers, Tropic and Flamingo to both name existing film and television content as racist, and to highlight the existence of audiences of colour in Britain. In the process, the emotional landscape of Black viewers was laid out within the stories and letters pages of these periodicals, as Black authors worked to provide a counter-narrative that navigated the persistent racial discomfort of white viewers and white letter-writers.

The introduction lays out the importance of critical race theory as a compelling analytical framework for historians of twentieth-century British history. It works first from an examination of everyday racism in Britain and the lack of attention to this in existing historiography, and then moves into the longer history of ‘not knowing’ racism that has characterized denials of racism in domestic twentieth-century Britain. The chapter notes critical race theory’s particular relevance for understanding Britain’s claims to racial tolerance in the twentieth century and the production of racialised screen content.

Chapter 3 moves into the post-war period and the Audience Research Department in the BBC archive, examining two of its ‘special audience research reports’, on a 1952 documentary series about race relations in Africa, and a 1968 study of audience responses to the BBC’s first fictional television series focusing on a Black family, Rainbow City (1967). In doing so, the chapter examines both the department’s conception of racially innocent British audiences and its loose definition of ‘race’ on screen within its own methodologies, and its uncomfortable encounter with the existence of measurable racial prejudice among ordinary Britons in 1968.

The introductory chapter introduces the contemporary challenge of immigration from a psychological perspective. The focus is on how host society members and immigrants feel about and perceive the situation. In the twenty-first century, at least some host society members in Western and non-Western countries perceive immigration as a threat. This perceived threat can be economic (e.g., they are coming here and taking our jobs) and/or cultural (e.g., they are not adapting to our way of life and language, but continuing to live in their own ways). Central to the controversy of immigration is national identity, and the threat of immigrants against “who we are.” The plan of the book and the major psychological themes underlying immigration are described.

This section explores integrating multicultural frameworks into migration management in South America, focusing on how various countries have embraced and implemented multiculturalism, interculturalism, and pluriculturalism. Argentina’s Migration Law emphasizes multiculturalism, promoting immigrant integration and respect for cultural diversity. Chile and Bolivia, on the other hand, have integrated interculturalism, focusing on immigrant and native population interactions. Paraguay’s pluriculturalism highlights the diversity inherent to South American nations, focusing on existing cultural differences. Through empirical studies, the section also examines the practical application of these frameworks, discussing how immigrants’ strategies – ranging from assimilation to multiculturalism – impact their integration outcomes. Political discourse and economic concerns are also discussed, highlighting the role of national rhetoric, media, and socioeconomic factors in shaping public attitudes toward immigration in the region. Together, these findings illuminate how South American countries navigate the complexities of migration, identity, and social inclusion.

This chapter examines the complex relationship between declining trust, increasing ethnic diversity, and immigration in contemporary societies. Exploring psychological mechanisms such as stereotypes, prejudices, intergroup contact, and perceived threat, the chapter reveals how diversity can challenge and foster societal trust under certain conditions. Theories, including social identity, realistic conflict, and contact hypothesis, illustrate how intergroup perceptions shape trust, especially when natives view immigrants through lenses of ingroup/outgroup distinctions, competition, and cultural threat. While stereotypes and prejudices often undermine trust, structured intergroup contact has shown potential to counteract these adverse effects. Furthermore, the chapter argues that policies promoting inclusive intergroup interaction, equal treatment in labor markets, and educational initiatives can cultivate mutual understanding and trust. By aligning immigration and social policies with these insights, societies can mitigate trust erosion and create a foundation for social cohesion amidst increasing diversity.

This chapter explores the evolving depiction of the Land of Israel in Hebrew poetry, reflecting the creation of modern Hebrew culture. It contrasts ancient expressions of longing for Zion with the transformed image of Israel as a tangible landscape. The chapter examines how poets from various Zionist immigration periods depicted their encounters with the land, ranging from messianic ecstasy to realistic sobriety. Each era produced poets who articulated their complex experiences, as exemplified by Noah Stern’s poem “Smells” (1935), which captures the blend of hallucinations, disappointments, tortures, pleasures, closeness, and alienation. Each poem is a new chapter in the ongoing narrative of encountering the land.

A framing case study describes the 2018 surge of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel from continental Europe to the UK in small boats to seek refugee status. The chapter then discusses international migration law. The chapter begins by presenting important concepts and historical trends from migration law, and the competing models of economic migration and crisis migration. It then describes in detail major components of the Refugee Convention, which sets international rules for determining whether an individual can be a refugee, creates rights for refugees, and shapes subsequent outcomes for individuals who are denied or lose refugee status. Finally, the chapter examines how international migration law interacts with topics discussed earlier in the book, including: law of the sea, human rights, armed conflict, criminal law, and environmental law.

The rights of peoples in Spain and its empire formed part of wider pan-European discussions, which were informed by both secular and religious normativities. According to those, the universe was the aggregate of constant and multiple exchanges. Though these exchanges were not necessarily equal nor simultaneous, they nonetheless formed the basic skeleton of all social, political, and legal interactions. Jurists and theologians who set out to explain how this system operated suggested that a pre-set order that was stable, prescriptive, and indisputable oversaw these exchanges. This order indicated the appropriate place for all peoples and things and gave each a particular function. It resulted in a constellation, which was not arbitrary, but instead corresponded to an objective situation, a ‘state of stability’ or an ‘unaltered condition.’