History Unveiled: Disparate Regimes in the United States, 1865-1965

Date and Time

• Tuesday, Jun 9, 2026  6pm - 7pm

Location

Details

Who decides the rights of immigrants? Historian Brendan A. Shanahan joins us at the Nebraska History Museum on Monday, June 9, at 6 pm to discuss his award-winning book Disparate Regimes: Nativist Politics, Alienage Law, and Citizenship Rights in the United States, 1865–1965 (Oxford University Press, 2025).

While federal law governed who could enter the country, Shanahan reveals that battles over what rights immigrants actually held—to vote, to work in public jobs, to obtain professional licenses, etc.—were fought state by state for nearly a century. The result was a patchwork of citizenship rights that varied dramatically across the country, with consequences that still echo today.

This event is free and open to the public thanks to the support of the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation. (This lecture is the first presentation during the museum’s summer History Unveiled program series, each month from June to August.)