David Glover's fascinating and complex look at the cultural background to—and influence of— the 1905 Aliens Act offers an in-depth analysis of attitudes toward the “alien” in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Glover asks how a country that “prided itself on offering asylum to refugees” (9) passed a law restricting immigration and explains how “‘the Jew’ came to occupy the role of quintessential foreigner in the popular imagination” (10). The Aliens Act constituted an important shift from the generally positive attitudes toward immigration during the Victorian period to a new restrictionism. Opponents believed the new policy signaled the end of religious liberty and tolerance. The Aliens Act gave locally constituted immigration boards the power to turn away immigrants, keeping day-to-day implementation of immigration control largely out of the legal system. Further, today's immigration controls, argues Glover, are a legacy of the 1905 act.
Strikingly, the Aliens Act received little scholarly comment prior to World War II. Renewed attention in the wake of commonwealth immigration generated several perspectives. Historians Bernard Gainer and John Garrard, writing in the early 1970s, contended that liberal values prevailed in the years after the 1905 act. More recent assessments have focused on the adaptation of individual communities, seeing that process as part of a multicultural past to be celebrated, even though that past includes many episodes of xenophobia. Alternatively, scholars view the British case as part of a larger pattern of immigration restriction that undermined the commitment to asylum.
Glover's chronological review of both well-known and forgotten literary works, writings of anti-immigration activists, and press coverage uncovers a deep cultural context that reflected global movements and widespread anti-Semitism. Glover turns first to varied readings of and responses to George Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876); he then moves on to literary representations of the East End, home to the majority of Jewish immigrants. Succeeding chapters treat the rise of anti-Semitism, accounts of “the immigrant journey” (5), particularly by journalists and activists, and conclude with an analysis of the long-term impact of the Aliens Act. Glover considers the political uses of Daniel Deronda, with its theme of a return to a Jewish homeland. The novel, which explores the question of where Jews belonged, generated significant response in the thirty years after its publication. The era's increasing calls for immigration control made the issue of a Jewish homeland all the more pressing. Translations of excerpts attracted a significant readership among Eastern European Jews, who faced deteriorating circumstances at the time. During this period, thanks to immigration and the potential for naturalization, national identity (much like Daniel Deronda's own identity) was in a state of flux. While George Eliot describes a world that accepted significant movement across borders and reflected her philosophical commitment to traditions of tolerance, growing antialienism increasingly emphasized the foreignness of aliens, especially Jews.
Glover draws on a range of literary works that focused on social problems—immigration, racial degeneration, and crime—typically associated with London's East End. The views promoted in such literature helped shape the racial politics that took center stage during the period and were, contends Glover, essential to the passage of the 1905 Aliens Act. As Glover demonstrates, writers offered a range of solutions to concerns of the day. Walter Besant's and Margaret Harkness's novels, for example, looked to the creation of cultural opportunities to address moral degradation and class divides. Besant's solution, the Palace of Delight with its theater, sports facilities, and meeting rooms, sets in motion a transformation of the East End. Strikingly, the actual People's Palace, which opened in 1887, became a disappointment to Besant—failing to bring the cultural uplift he so desired. Further, antialienist groups used the Hall of the People's Palace for large rallies, making the site a reflection of the contested philosophies of the day.
The impact and identity of aliens spawned various parliamentary commissions and writings by social reformers and journalists. Antialienists such as Arnold White and W. H. Wilkins increasingly concluded that aliens, especially Jews, had a negative influence on Britain's physical and economic well-being. While many of these investigations emphasized the role of Jews in sweated labor and drew on well-worn anti-Semitic images, Beatrice Potter (later Webb), in the 1890 Final Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating System, challenged the notion that Jewish middlemen caused sweating and denied that it was a system. The 1902–03 Royal Commission on Alien Immigration that led to the 1905 Aliens Act revisited issues of sweated labor. Glover asks to what extent anti-Semitism pervasive across the political spectrum brought about the Aliens Act. Government concern that charges of “race-hatred” might undermine passage of the bill led Prime Minister Arthur Balfour to deny an increase of anti-Semitism. In response, Israel Zangwill declared that the “Aliens Bill was inspired by anti-anti-Semites and will reinspire them” (120). Shortly after the bill's passage, Zangwill concluded that anti-Semitism would not disappear and Jews required their own territory.
David Glover offers a deeply nuanced treatment of the historical and cultural factors that brought about immigration control in 1905. He highlights the operation of competing and complicated philosophical perspectives within a complex political landscape. After all, anti-Semitism emerged on the Left and the Right, and both Conservatives and Liberals cherished the notion of England as a tolerant nation. The Aliens Act passed under the Conservatives, yet they experienced a significant defeat in February 1906, leaving Liberals to oversee the act's implementation. Although rabid antialienism had an adverse effect on a candidate's chance for election, immigration control replaced the longstanding tradition of open immigration. Glover's incisive analysis of literary texts not only deepens our understanding of antialienism and anti-Semitism at the turn of the century but also offers a convincing explanation for their role in the transition of attitudes and practices with regard to immigration.
