The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation-State

The American Founding Fathers believed that freedom could only flourish within a nation-state. They also believed that a nation-state could not exist without sovereignty, control over borders, and a strictly guarded standard for citizenship.

Today, the American nation-state is under attack by progressive Leftists who aim to recast the social compact around a set of "universal values" that deny sovereignty, borders, and citizenship.

Edward J. Erler explains why the dream of global unity is a great deception. The future, he argues, belongs not to globalists, but rather to ardent patriots, proud citizens, and strong sovereign nations that celebrate their singularity and unique cultural inheritance.

In The United States in Crisis, Erler recapitulates the legislative and judicial decisions that have compromised American sovereignty, including the court cases that led to birthright citizenship; the Immigration Act of 1965, which abolished immigration quotas and has irreparably altered the course of American immigration history; and the weakening of our legal definition of citizenship.

Finally, Erler examines how the Trump administration can defend the nation-state from the progressive globalist agenda by creating an immigration policy grounded in America's founding principles and the common good of her citizens.

Author: Edward J. Erler
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: 06/10/2025
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781641774758
ISBN10: 1641774754
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | American Government | General
- Political Science | American Government | Judicial Branch
- Political Science | Civics & Citizenship

About the Author
Edward J. Erler is a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. He is the author of The American Polity: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Constitutional Government and co-author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration. He has also authored Property and the Pursuit of Happiness. Erler was a member of the California Advisory Commission on Civil Rights from 1988-2006 and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in 1996. He has testified on birthright citizenship and on voting rights on two occasions before the House Judiciary Committee and on other civil rights issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Erler earned a BA from San Jose State University, financed by the GI bill for services rendered, and an MA and PhD in government from the Claremont Graduate School.