Rating: 
Summary: the nation state and massive immigration
Review: A nation state can be multi-racial. A nation state can be multi-ethnic. A nation state cannot be multi-cultural, because a nation(culture)will always try to express itself as a state and a state will always try to validate itself by trying to create a nation (culture) within its jurisdiction or to extend its jurisdiction to encompass all the nation(culture) that called it into existence in the first place.
If we do not control the number of immigrants coming into our country and vigorously assimilate the vast numbers already here there's bound to be social unrest when peoples with little in common try to live together. The pressure to separate politically will cause serious social unrest.A likely senario is that white and black Americans will migrate out of the southwest leaving an hispanic majority which will then seek reunion with a revanchist Mexico. There are signs that this phenomenon has already begun.
Lets not let this happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a simple book. Much honest food for thought.
Review: At first I was suspicious this book was a dressed-up nativist, English-only diatribe and nostalgia trip. And Mr. Hanson clearly does little to sugarcoat his judgments which are often harsh--perhaps even alarmist. But it is not a mean-hearted book at root, by any means. There is a lot of honesty, reflection, and arguably compassion in this book. It has been valuable to me and should be appreciated by folks that are wrestling with these complex issues within themselves and when looking at our culture and recent history.It's not a book devoted to impugning immigrants, or anti-bilingualism, or simplistic American jingoism. The book is more an analysis via memoir of the ongoing cultural confusion in America, and what we teach our kids and with how much rigor, rather than being just knee-jerk or reactionary. An example: the disaster is not bilingualism per se, it's that most students aren't being taught either language adequately. That focus on results and consequences, rather than intention, is typical of the tone of this book. He also points out that American education, largely, has largely forsaken the old pedagogy of what it means to be American. In this vein, he has some arguments and observations about American history and virtue that will, at first glance, feel quite chauvinist and reactionary to those of us who feel multi-culturalism is morally important. But it is at that point that the book becomes valuable, because his articulation and candor are persuasive. The book is too multi-faceted to summarize fully, but reading it was worth my time--I learned some things on a subject I have already thought much about. Historians will likely value the lucidity of Mr. Hanson's voice many, many years from now. I can recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A book that seems to have found its audience
Review: I did not read this book, but I did read the first chapter and skimmed the rest. This is a dismal book, one that can be best summed up this way: It appeals to a certain kind of reader, which is apparently the same kind of reader who is also the television viewer of "Jerry Springer." As evidence, I offer Joseph D. Seckelman's review, a few down from mine: decrying that Latinos, by continuing to speak Spanish, are not learning English, I question his own command of the English language. He can't even spell A P A R T H E I D ... Thus the market for this book: illiterate English speakers. As Rick Ricardo would say: Mira que tiene cosas esta mujer! Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!
Rating: 
Summary: Nativist Nonsense
Review: Let's see: people in the U.S., exercising their freedom, choose to speak in Spanish. That's a problem? When the Founding Fathers were setting up this country, they didn't establish an official language because back then more people in the U.S. spoke German than spoke English. Rather than establishing a "minority" language -- English -- as the "official" language, they let nature take its course. This is a market economy, let the market decide. No one is forcing corporate America to have bilingual telephone operators, but they do so because it's good for business. The problem with Hanson's book, however, is that his are the same arguments that nurtured racism and discrimination in the 19th and 20th century America. I can't imagine why the U.S. becoming a bilingual nation is a bad thing. And I can't imagine the U.S. remaining a free country if we are going to deprive people the freedom to go about their lives speaking in the language that they want to. Where I lived in San Francisco the vast majority of people spoke Chinese, and, well, so what? The world didn't end. "California" is a Spanish word to begin with, so what does one expect: to find no one speaking Spanish in California? Get real, and get over it. This book panders to the petty prejudices of Nativists and bigots.
Rating:
Summary: What I've been wanting to tell people!
Review: I hope this books gets wide and fair attention, it is what I've wanted to tell so many people - and more. I'm so tired of the racist, divisive identity politics being practiced these days, especially in California. I'm buying a couple more copies for some politicians. I do wish it did have an index and some references, but the book is well written and very "tight" - so an index might be huge! It is just so insane that our leaders (political, media, academic, and business) will not address the hard issues of our times (out of control illegal immigration, the environment, academic corruption, and economic perversions). Everybody in America who gives a hoot ought to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: At last an honest accounting of a frightening issue
Review: All Americans - especially Californians - should read this book. Hanson takes a balanced look at a complex illegal immigration problem that will likely become worse before it gets better. The combination of hopelessness and despair with multiculturalism and a sense of racial and cultural entitlement (rather then the somewhat forced assimilation of other immigrant populations) is a dangerous combination as Hanson explains. We should all beware of the professional political panderers on both the left and the right who helped to get us into this mess and seem to have no interest in anything other than garnering more political power.
Rating:
Summary: Linguistic Aparthid, English Speakers vs. Spanish Speakers
Review: This book was excellent!! It gives the first time observer a glimpse into what will become an giant explosion in the English speaking part of America once America realizes what is going on.
I would recommend this book to all that can read it. America will, unfortunately, become a bilingual country within 50 years or less. And California may revert back to Mexico. The book also points refers to certain intellectual and other Hispanics who absolutely claim that California (and Arizona,Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah) are going to be returned to Mexico from the immigration of Mexicans. As a watcher of American Spanish Television (Univision and Telemundo), I wish Professor Hanson had disucssed the roll of Spanish TV in trying to prevent Spanish speakers from learning English. (Ask a Spanish speaker what is the technology language of the world is and chances are he'll reply: "German" ). There is NEVER a word on Spanish TV about the importance of learning English. (Of course the more Spanish speakers the higher the worth of the TV stations and the more they can charge per commerical. It is in their interest to get more and more Spanish speakers so that their TV stations don't depreciate in value) Anyway, this is I hope the first of a series of frank discussions we all should have about Linguistic Aparthid (my words to describe the fact that even financially poor American English speakers have their own Spanish speaking maids and gardners, just as I saw in 1974 financially poor white South Africans having their own black maids and gardners). There should be more discussion about what we are doing to our Latino children, we are allowing them to become handicaped. (Perhaps this is by design, so that there will be another generation of Spanish speaking maids and gardners?) Joe Seckelman
Rating:
Summary: Liberal Reviewers' condescension
Review: I have read many articles by Hanson, also his book on war. I'm going to buy Mexifornia as soon as I can because I just read a review by John Fonte ... Of course I wanted to read the liberal reviews on Amazon and naturally they hold true to form. Anyone they disagree with is stupid and not worthy of a PhD. I'm so sick of that argument, over and over again. ..., Hanson doesn't have to lie to support his position. ... It's too bad you'll never see Hanson receive the accolades from the press like Moore. But there's no such thing as liberal bias is there?
Rating:
Summary: A Good Place to Start
Review: Mexifornia is yet another example of Hanson's beautiful prose and sharp intellect. He fearlessly dissects the current problems with U.S. Mexican immigration policy, skewering both the political right and left. Of course, the knee-jerk, and often vested, reactionaries will shout "racist" or "bigot," which all-too-often prevents constructive, open dialogue from taking place, something sorely needed to improve the many obvious problems of widespread illegal immigration. This book is a good starting place for that dialogue. Hanson's underlying assertion that the Mexican government is worse than the U.S government, are indeed addressed. All but the most obtuse reader understands some of the obvious implications of one society always fleeing to the other, but never the reverse, to say nothing regarding infant mortality, life expectancy, available health care, literacy rates, purchasing power, economic mobility, etc. I did not give it five stars simply because I was hoping for a longer, deeper inquiry into the issue, closer to what Hanson has given us in his previous historical work. This can be forgiven, however, because Hanson is not attempting that sort of book. Besides, for all their various degrees, surveys, and studies, our social-"scientists" certainly have not provided any realistic solutions for our current immigration dilemma.
Rating:
Summary: Scrutinizes the impact of massive illegal immigration
Review: Mexifornia: A State Of Becoming by Victor David Hanson scrutinizes the impact that massive illegal immigration from Mexico to California has had upon the state, its civil services, and its culture. Emphasizing the importance of making American citizenship a priority, sharply criticizing those who stymie discussion of the illegal immigration issue, and lauding the American traditions of assimilation, integration, and intermarriage, Mexifornia is a distinct wake-up call concerning a serious social issue and should be required reading for state and federal policy makers, as well as the immigration activist and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in immigration issues.
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