The Making of Asian America: A History
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"The definitive history of Asian Americans by one of the nation's preeminent scholars on the subject. In the past fifty years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. But as award-winning historian Erika Lee reminds us, Asian Americans also have deep roots in the country. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day. An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s; indentured "coolies" who worked alongside African slaves in the Caribbean; and Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and South Asian immigrants who were recruited to work in the United States only to face massive racial discrimination, Asian exclusion laws, and for Japanese Americans, incarceration during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a "despised minority," Asian Americans are now held up as America's "model minorities" in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States. Published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the United States' Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that has remade our "nation of immigrants," this is a new and definitive history of Asian Americans. But more than that, it is a new way of understanding America itself, its complicated histories of race and immigration, and its place in the world today"-- Provided by publisher.
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This is a book I didn't even know about till a week ago but I couldn't stop once I started listening to the audiobook. It's a fascinating book about the people who migrated from different countries in Asia to the US from the 17th century till recently, and I think the author did a good job relaying both the political as well as the personal reasons for this migration. Along with the desperation of a people who want a better life, we also see the bigotry and xenophobia towards them and how these perceptions change based on world events, as well as based on what the politicians of US want Americans to feel. The chapters about the Japanese internment camps were particularly difficult to read.
This was very informative and I am glad to get the opportunity to expand my knowledge about this topic. My review is pretty incoherent because I'm just not in a mood to write anything today, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I would definitely recommend this book if you are interested to learn this part of American history, which is not very well known nor considered very important to be taught.
Stuff you missed in history class... because it was likely never taught.
This book is an undertaking. Lee must have pored over thousands of documents, books, and interviews to put this together and distill it into this 400+ page volume. It's an excellent overview about Asians in America, and not just Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Americans either. The book spans from the time of the explorers to present.
I found myself wanting to know more about certain aspects of Asian American history as the book went on, so consider this book your starting point or launching off point.
Lee draws a lot of parallels between the Asian American experience and the black experience, which may be cause for concern for some.
It took me a long time to read this not because it's not great but rather because it could be so sad and infuriating. Of course, I have the massive white privilege to be like, “Oh wow this sucks, the U.S. has been so awful to Asian Americans!” and take a break instead of you know, living those experiences.
But it's such a rewarding read as it gives so much history and context to not just the experiences of different Asian Americans but also just immigration policy in general. I'd highly recommend this to anyone whose family has immigrated to the U.S., who is interested in immigration, or interested in the history of Asian peoples in this country.
