Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking yet down to earth
Review: Hanson's style can be a little too intelluctual at times yet it is very clear and his points are well made.Here is someone descended from immigrants as many of us are and who has seen first hand the effects and benefits of the recent and constant flow of immigrants, legal and illegal. He describes quite clearly the role of assimilation into American culture and the effects of a failure to assimilate. He exposes the failures of the 'multicultural' approach and demonstrates the strengths of our multiracial country. Lastly, it is clear from his words that Hanson very obviously cares about these immigrants and wants to see them succeed and their children succeed. Finally someone courageously explores the issues surrounding immigration and race politics.
Rating:
Summary: Superb, but remedies don't go far enough...
Review: Victor Davis Hanson's book is absolutely superb however he backs away from presenting solutions to the all too numerous problems associated with the alarming increase in illegal Mexican aliens. Forcible deportation along with the revocation of citizenship of children born to illegal Mexican aliens combined with a complete and total forfeiture of all property would substantially increase the quality of life within America. It would be in America's best interest to take the confiscated property (homes, businesses, cars, cash, etc.,) and redistribute these essentially ill-gotten gains to America's black population as a means of reparation for the sins of slavery. African-Americans have been consistently getting the shaft for over four hundred years and they are the ones most adversely affected by the illegal Mexican alien invasion. They are taking the jobs that would rightfully belong to black Americans. The unemployment rate amongst black American males is close to fifty per cent and yet every illegal Mexican alien in this country is working two and three jobs each. A far more viable solution would be to enforce America's current immigration laws by deporting anyone who is in this country illegally and to redress black America's grievances by restoring what should have rightfully been theirs by giving them the forfeited property. Contrary to what other reviewers may opine, there is nothing inherently wrong with being "anti-Mexican" - the great thing about the USA is that we have the right of free speech and association and consequently, no one is forced to think that Mexicans are God's chosen people (contrary to what the Catholic Church may think, but that's a topic for a different review). African-Americans are once again being shunted aside and that is something that needs to be addressed. Every gain made by an illegal Mexican alien is a gain that is deprived from a black American. African-Americans have been victimized in this country for over four hundred years and they shouldn't have to take a back seat to someone who's been here for fifteen minutes. Every cent that goes to illegal Mexican aliens in social services (welfare, medical, scholarships, etc) is money that is essentially taken out of the pockets of other more-deserving Americans. Mr. Hanson clearly brings the issues to light but he needs to present a sledge-hammer-like solution. I highly recommend this book to all readers. It would appear that the one issue that may finally unite whites and blacks is their need to join forces to ensure their continued survival against the unrelenting Hispanic onslaught. First-rate book that should be purchased along with "Alien Nation" by Peter Brimelow and anything by Pat Buchanan.
Rating:
Summary: Voice that needs to be heard by any one who truly loves USA
Review: A recent poll revealed that 87% of Americans are in favor of the deportation of illegal aliens and complete forfeiture of their property. Life would be so much more liveable if this dream were to come true. Victor Davis Hanson brilliantly articulates the profound loathing and contempt that Hispanics deservedly induce within the Anglo population. He clearly demonstrates their unparalleled alcohol consumption, propensity towards violence (ranging from cockfighting to gang-banging), inability to obey even the most elementary rules and regulations (no driver's license, no insurance, no vehicle, no valid plates), their propensity for violating housing and zoning regulations by illegally converting single family dwellings into "single village dwellings", and the consequent deletarious effects these actions have on making our neighborhoods unliveable. My city, Chicago, is now virtually unrecognizable and I can imagine a day when the name of the city will be changed to "Chicano", Illinois.
Detractors will label this review as nativist or bigoted but there must be valid reasons why 87% of the American people are willing to support the forced deportation of a people that add literally nothing of value to America. Mexico itself (a corrupt cesspool of a miserable failed country that makes no secret of its anti-Americanism) is the best example I know of as to why we absolutely must seal our borders and reduce the population of illegal aliens. These people made a complete mess out of their own country and now they are in the process of doing the same to ours. They want everything but they're happy with nothing and while they cheerfully drain the U.S. of its financial resources they are completely unwilling to give anything in return. In Chicago, every neighborhood that has seen its Hispanic population increase has subsequently been plagued by an extraordinary increase in crime statistics committed by this particular group of people thus leading to an unprecedented level of "white flight". My city is now unliveable and unless we do something to stem the "bronze tide", my country will soon be next.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking
Review: I loved this book of Hanson's. I lived in Arizona, also with a high immigrant population, and share many of Hanson's convictions. Contrary to what the Pat Buchanan types say, most immigrants do not come here with evil intentions. They are instead, sandwiched between a Mexican government which doesn't want them in Mexico, and counterproductive American policies such as bilingual education and multiculturalism, which help retard immigrants assimilation and rise into society. Short but clear book, filled both with knowledge and first-hand experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Mighty foolish stuff!
Review: There is one, and only one, reason that our borders were never really closed- and that is because we *could not* close them. We could not do it in the past, and we can't do it now. Pick your own reasons- they will all be good- but I think the single strongest one is that it was, and remains, politically impossible, and becomes only more impossible as the Hispanic vote share grows. What changed was that things did not use to be so much better in the US than in Mexico... but now the gap is so large that the flood of migration northward is on. As the gap closes- as Mexican economics improve, and our need for cheap labor declines- so will the migrant wave. So all Hanson's talk is for naught.
Rating:
Summary: Never an Alien in my own land
Review: First of all, this so called intellectual, Hanson, has to take some archeology 101 classes.
We Mexicans are the true and only real natives of these lands. Our ancestors are the Apache, Yaqui, Navajo Azteca-Mexica, Maya, Zapoteca,Olmeca, Tolteca, etc. etc. etc. • Our forefathers you say? Were those forefathers the Native- American? • Mexicans come here illegally? We have been in these lands for thousands of years and by the way, Did you ask permission to the natives to take our land? • Assimilate? Did the Europeans learn the language (Navajo, Sioux, Shoshone etc. etc. etc.) and culture of the natives? Look around you and take a very close look at the so called American culture and what do you see? Images that are believed to be American and even national symbols such as the cowboy, but who do you think really invented the cowboy. You have guessed: the Mexicans. The cowboy never was and never will be an American invention. We "gave" (although not voluntarily) you culture. Do you like your thanksgiving? Where do you think the turkey and the turkey-eating tradition comes from? You have guessed again-good for you!!!. It comes from Mexico Do you like the so called Poinsettia flowers? Well, that too comes from Mexico
Who do you think invented the zero used in mathematics? The Mayas from Mexico and Central America and that is no surprise for we descend from one of the most brilliant people of all time. The true illegal aliens are the white Europeans who took everything they wanted from this magnificent continent. The problems we face today are the result of European massacres of indigenous people, of theft, of the spreading of diseases, of the annihilations of entire native civilizations, languages, customs and traditions that were thousands of years old and yet the natives have never ever received anything good not even an apology.
Rating:
Summary: An Intimate and Thoughtful Look at Immigration
Review: It is hard to imagine a more humane, intimate and simultaneously objective look at Hispanic immigration into California. Victor Davis Hanson, a classics professors at California State in Fresno who grew up in a multigenerational immigrant California family, examines the economic and cultural causes and effects of immigration from perpectives both global and personal. Tracing the career arc of an illegal from single young strongback to physically exhausted family head unable to build retirement savings or pursue advancement open to legal immigrants, he puts a human face to their plight without condescension or dreamy, unrealistic cures. His suggested solution to this difficult equation is balanced and requires sacrifices from both Americans and Mexicans. It is a must read for anyone interested in better understanding this important issue.
Rating:
Summary: A throwback to the attitudes of 80 years ago.
Review: This is a frankly racist book, and a frightening one. It represents a throwback to the xenophobic attitudes of California's 1920s. First, a clarification: I am an Anglophone with mostly Northern European roots who grew up in Southern California, and I worked alongside Mexican immigrants (both documented and undocumented, both citizen and non-citizen) in San Diego County's orange groves and Christmas tree farms when I was in high school. Today I'm an engineer. These were honest men, working hard to support their families. Some of them had their families here; others' families were still back home in the hardscrabble villages where they grew up. Their story, if you look at it closely, is remarkably similar to the stories of the poor-but-honest English, German, "Scotch-Irish" (actually uprooted Scots Borderers, mostly via Ulster), Irish, Chinese, Scottish, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Korean, Basque, Jewish, Philippine and Portuguese immigrants who have come here, worked incredibly hard in the face of fierce resentment from those whose forebears had arrived before they did, and grown to be full members of the community within a couple of generations. Like the rest of us, they are in the main healthy, hardworking, ambitious human beings searching for a chance to earn a better life for their children; like so many of our own ancestors, they are finding that a lot of folks who were born here in the Promised Land have conveniently forgotten their own recent immigrant heritage. (The supreme irony, of course, is that so many of the recent immigrants from Mexico can actually claim hundreds of generations longer ancestry in this hemisphere than most of the rest of us can. And yet we feel justified in calling _them_ interlopers. But I digress.) Victor Hanson's "Mexifornia" reminds me most of a shocking piece of period racism I've been working my way through lately. It's an odd little popular novel from about 1919 I found in a thrift store. Written by Peter B. Kyne (a resident of San Francisco at the time) and titled "The Pride of Palomar", it is set on a fictional rancho somewhere south of Santa Barbara, and it drips with venomous attitudes toward all non-Anglo ethnic groups. The protagonist is a part-Irish, part Castillian-caballero rancher who sees the "yellow peril" in Japanese truck farmers, indolent laziness in his father's Native American retainers, refined laziness and financial foolishness in his Californio forebears (including his own father), and a dangerous hot temper as the legacy of his Irish paternal great grandfather. He sees his own education in hyper-efficient "American" farming methods at Davis as the wave of the future, and verbally blasts all who get in his way. He is early twentieth-century American jingoism personified, and he is a very uncomfortable character for me to read about. I thought he and his type were firmly in California's past, until I stumbled upon Professor Hanson's diatribe. I was wrong. I find little to distinguish between the attitudes of Peter B. Kyne and those of Victor Davis Hanson.
Rating:
Summary: The difficult truth about California...
Review: I read this book and needless to say, I was surprised about how little I knew about illegal immigrants in California. Professor Hanson's book has enlightened me on the subject about how illegals can come in, get free medical care, a free education, driver's license, etc. Our "gobernator" needs to read this book to take care of the illegal immigration problem as well as other government officials in D.C.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: An interesting look into the world of illegal and mass immigration flow into the United States as it swells with uneducated and poor people who must turn to the U.S. for financial support as we become more and more swarmed with taxes to fund illegal immigration as the Government sits by and does nothing.
Most illegals in California simply want it... That's it, just want the state for themsleves, throw out the whites and America's real history, california is already rewritting history for public school books, and claim it for Mexico, of course if we left, we'd have to take our things with us, buildings, homes, buisnesses, economy, money, etc.. Then they could happily live in a dirt hole. Then when they are their own nation, we could fight them and conquer California! Then it would be ours again! YAY! What a waste of time that was.
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