I picked up a collection called Required Reading by Eugene McCarthy at the Book Eddy, Knoxville’s best book store, today. It is a collection of short pieces, mostly from newspapers, from the 1970s and 80s. One that stood out is called “Is America the World’s Colony” and was published in Policy Review in 1981. It contains a brief discussion of the related problems of illegal immigration and bilingualism. About the latter he said:

A more subtle manifestation of neo-colonialism is the challenge to the status of the English Language in the United States . . . [bilingualism] is being done in the name of civil rights, of good citizenship, and of economic and cultural equality. Yet it runs contrary to the historical evidence of the dangers of bilingualism in a country . . .

The store I mentioned above truly is Knoxville’s best. Among the treasures I’ve found their in the last five years include Twelve Against Empire by Robert L. Beisner (featured in Bill Kauffman’s latest), Outgrowing Democracy by John Lukacs and two (Discriminations & Against the American Grain) by Dwight Macdonald; among other treasures. It’s worth checking out if you are in this part of the country.