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All nations make rules -- through their constitutions, legislatures, bureaucratic practices \u2013 about who counts as a citizen.\xa0American by Birth\xa0examines the role of the Supreme Court \u2013 particularly a ruling from 1898 that is still precedent today.\xa0Wong Kim Ark v. United States\xa0interpreted the language of the 14th Amendment to answer whether a man born in the United States was a citizen. The Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark and held that the 14th Amendment extends to children of immigrants who were born in the United States. Using the work of legal scholars, political scientists, and historians, Drs. Julie L. Novkov and Carol Nackenoff provide an extended biography of Wong Kim Ark and the historic 1898 landmark case \u2013 but also a biography of US Citizenship from the colonies to the present.\xa0American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship\xa0(UP of Kansas, 2021)\xa0concludes with an impressive chapter that contextualizes birthright citizenship globally and within the context of American politics and scholarly debates \u2013 with an emphasis on the vulnerability of birthright citizenship to indirect and direct change.\nDr. Julie L. Novkov\xa0is Professor of Political Science and Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and interim dean of Rockefeller college at the University at Albany, SUNY. She is the author of\xa0Racial Union: Law, Intimacy, and the White State in Alabama, 1865-1954\xa0(UMichigan, 2008).\nDr. Carol Nackenoff\xa0is Richter Professor emeritus of Political Science at Swarthmore College. She is the author of\xa0The Fictional Republic: Horatio Alger and American Political Discourse\xa0(Oxford, 1994).\nThey are also co-editors of\xa0Stating the Family: New Directions in the Study of American Politics\xa0(University Press of Kansas, 2020) and\xa0Statebuilding from the Margins: Between Reconstruction and the New Deal\xa0(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)\nTwo resources mentioned in the podcast: Tian Atlas Xu\u2019s\xa0\u201cImmigration Attorneys and Chinese Exclusion Law Enforcement: The Case of San Francisco, 1882\u20131930\u201d\xa0and\nthe symposium on\xa0American by Birth.\nDaniella Campos assisted with this podcast.\nSusan Liebell\xa0is Dirk Warren '50 Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph\u2019s University in Philadelphia.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law