The Pluralist Imagination from East to West in American LiteratureThe first three decades of the twentieth century saw the largest period of immigration in U. S. history. This immigration, however, was accompanied by legal segregation, racial exclusionism, and questions of residents national loyalty and commitment to a shared set of American beliefs and identity. The faulty premise that homogeneityas the symbol of the melting potwas the mark of a strong nation underlined nativist beliefs while undercutting the rich