From Publishers Weekly
Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the 19th century were transformed into outsiders by racism and economic exploitation. This pattern, Takaki shows, would be imposed on other Asian immigrant groups. Filipinos, condescended to as "little brown brothers" by whites in the Philippines, became targets of violent white backlash once they emigrated to the U.S.; Indians were feared and persecuted as labor competition; Japanese-Americans withdrew into self-contained communities. Takaki, descended from a Japanese-American family who labored on Hawaiian plantations, and now an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley, has written a vibrant, rich history that gives back a voice to countless "invisible Americans." His broad, multi-ethnic survey is peopled with real individuals, allowing us to experience their loneliness, separation from families, struggles for survival. Later chapters cover the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II and the post-1965 "second wave" of Asian immigrants that included Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians. Photos. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This popular history of Asian Americans--Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Indians--based frequently on primary sources, shows how they have made their presence felt in America from the early 1800s. Their immigration has been marked by the cruelty of forced labor, poverty, and intense prejudice. Many had come searching for a better life after hearing tales of gold nuggets on city streets, money on trees, and the famed "gold mountain." Instead, they found the endless chopping of sugar cane, the sweat of laundries, the backache of building railroads. Later generations discovered the lack of opportunity despite prestigious university degrees. This is fascinating reading, highly recommended.- Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans FROM THE PUBLISHER
In a blend of narrative history, personal recollection, and oral testimony, Ronald Takaki presents a sweeping history of Asian Americans. He writes of the Chinese who laid tracks for the transcontinental railroad, of plantation laborers in the canefields of Hawaii, of "picture brides" marrying strangers in the hope of becoming part of the American dream. He tells stories of Japanese Americans behind the barbed wire of U.S. internment camps during World War II, Hmong refugees tragically unable to adjust to Wisconsin's alien climate and culture, and Asian-American students stigmatized by the stereotype of the "model minority." This powerful and moving work, now updated with a new preface and new closing chapter, has resonance for all Americans, who together make up a nation of immigrants from other shores.
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