![BORDER CONTROL BORDER CONTROL](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1685946609/articles/CIlWZ9fP81685953453715/BORDER-CONTROL.jpg)
The limits of immigration are set not by economics but by political psychology—by backlash unconcerned with net benefits.
On October 5, 1908, a hammy melodrama made its début in Washington, D.C.: Israel Zangwill’s “The Melting-Pot,” a four-act play that introduced the dominant metaphor for the American immigrant experience. The plot is thin—a New York tenement romance threatened by an Old World blood feud is mended by the salvific power of patriotism. Mostly, it’s a pretext for pontificating about a new American religion. “America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming!” the protagonist, a struggling Jewish composer named David Quixano, proclaims. “What is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labour and look forward!”
The critics were mainly contemptuous. “Sentimental trash masquerading as a human document,” the New York Times judged. Across the Atlantic, the Times of London declared the play’s “rhapsodising over music and crucibles and statues of liberty” to be “romantic claptrap.” But when President Theodore Roosevelt attended the première he was utterly smitten. (“That’s a great play, Mr. Zangwill, that’s a great play!” he is said to have shouted.) The vivid allegory—of “souls melting in the Crucible” and divine fires purging inherited rivalries—imprinted something indelible on the American psyche.
Denne historien er fra June 12, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra June 12, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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![SUBJECT AND OBJECT SUBJECT AND OBJECT](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/to6VeZYHB1739191198720/SUBJECT-AND-OBJECT.jpg)
SUBJECT AND OBJECT
What happened when Lillian Ross profiled Ernest Hemingway.
![ROYAL FLUSH ROYAL FLUSH](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/UI6Ma0OcX1739191861348/ROYAL-FLUSH.jpg)
ROYAL FLUSH
The fall of red.
![Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/pzN_cTFgE1739190398786/ROZ-CHAST-ON-GEORGE-BOOTHS-CARTOONS.jpg)
Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons
There's almost nothing I like more than a laughing fit. It is a non-brain response, like an orgasm or a sneeze.
![CHUKA CHUKA](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ipIKlzJlU1739190624506/CHUKA.jpg)
CHUKA
I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being. Sometimes we live for years with yearnings that we cannot name.
![Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives" Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/kA0ClSAKX1739187641551/RACHEL-AVIV-ON-JANET-MALCOLMS-TROUBLE-IN-THE-ARCHIVES.jpg)
Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"
As Janet Malcolm worked on \"Trouble in the Archives,\" a two-part piece about prominent psychoanalysts who disagreed about Freud, she began a correspondence with Kurt Eissler, the head of the Sigmund Freud Archives.
![PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/2oD61HcWT1739188467373/PERSONAL-HISTORY-A-VISIT-TO-MADAM-BEDI.jpg)
PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI
I was estranged from my own mother, so a friend tried to lend me his.
![AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/e3IBpWw0l1739185964212/AMERICAN-CHRONICLES-WAR-OF-WORDS.jpg)
AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS
Editors, writers, and the making of a magazine.
![LIVE FROM NEW YORK LIVE FROM NEW YORK](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/1Xcl8aksl1739192099780/LIVE-FROM-NEW-YORK.jpg)
LIVE FROM NEW YORK
A new docuseries commemorates fifty years of \"Saturday Night Live.\"
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TANGLED WEB
An arachnophobe pays homage to the spider.
![TROUBLE IN PARADISE TROUBLE IN PARADISE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ZS1PsgMcC1739187790416/TROUBLE-IN-PARADISE.jpg)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Mike White's mischievous morality plays.