His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in The U.S.

This book goes very in depth, through one mans experience being a Latino immigrant, about the systemic discrimination against Latinos in the United States. I highly recommend this book, it reads easily, and is extremely compelling.

Nice to hear the other side of the story for a change instead of all the foaming at the mouth hysteria from right wing radio and tv on this topic. Mr. Rivera shows the historical origin for much of the panic over immigration that passses for discourse today. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who should read this book never will.

I was given Geraldo Rivera's book, His Panic, as a gift. I have to admit when I picked up the book I expected to find a screed filled with hyperbole and rancorous comments about people who are concerned about the immigration issue. Instead I found a well thought out, passionate but not overly emotional argument about why Hispanic immigration is good for America not bad. It is an outstanding treatment of the issue. Geraldo's main point in this book is that Hispanic immigration is a good thing not a bad thing. He points out that Hispanic immigrants integrate into American society much like other immigrants in the past have done, such as the Irish and other European immigrants in the last century. Successive generations become more educated, more successful, and more "American" in their outlook and attitudes. The key difference being that Hispanics have another language, Spanish, which is the main tongue of early immigrants, and that Hispanics are readily identifiable ethnically. While Geraldo never explicitly states it in this book, underlying racism certainly seems to play a role in Americans' fear of Hispanic immigrants coming to this country. Throughout the book Geraldo deftly, using facts, undermines the myths of Hispanic immigration, such as that immigration increases the crime rate, that they steal jobs, that it's an avenue for importing terrorism, or that they import disease. He also talks about the fear mongers in the media hyping up isolated events, such as an illegal immigrant killing innocent Americans in a drunk driving accident, to paint all immigrants, illegal or not, as creating a crime wave, when in fact, Hispanic immigrants have a crime rate that is no different than other ethnic groups. The book also highlights many immigrant success stories, while lamenting Hispanic gangs. And it provides harrowing, personal accounts of many illegal immigrants. It ends with Geraldo's own policy preferences for addressing Hispanic immigration. This is a very well done treatise on the immigration issue. Even those who have a different point of view than Geraldo's would benefit from reading the book for a different perspective.

For those looking for the definitive book on today's immigration debate look no further. Geraldo separates fact from hype and lays it on the line. The book is a tribute to all immigrants past and present that have helped build and forge this great nation. Also, included are some needed history lessons on the very sad chapter of U.S.-Hispanic relations that affects all Americans to this day. I am a Hispanic American conservative who left the democrats when they dumped traditional values, then, joined the republicans only to leave after their rants on the undocumented and guilt by association mentality toward all Hispanics in general. More and more Latinos are becoming independents because neither party today represents Latino moral values or community needs. Geraldo you may be a little too liberal for me, but on this issue you for one are Fair and Balanced!

In this dynamic book we find a Jewish-American-Puerto-Rican shedding new light on the immigration debate, and the impact of that debate on our nation. Given that there were many 5-star, and 1-star reviews, while few reviewers ranked with 2-4 stars, I decided to look at those that had given 1-star reviews. I found that of the 20 posted at the time only one reviewer had read the whole book, several claimed not to have read it at all, and the vast majority clearly have not read it based on the content of the reviews. At the time of this posting I would estimate a more accurate average rating is as follows (considering only those who have read at least part of the book): 10 5-star, 4 4-star, 1 3-star, 1 2-star, and 3 1-star --> 74/19 = 3.9 <br /> <br />omitting reviewers that have not read any of the book: <br /> <br />3.9 star average