'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title. Photos.Ĭopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. 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. 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. Indians were feared and persecuted as labor competition Japanese-Americans withdrew into self-contained communities. 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. This pattern, Takaki shows, would be imposed on other Asian immigrant groups. in the 19th century were transformed into outsiders by racism and economic exploitation. (read more from the Chapter 2, pg.Chinese immigrants to the U.S. When Hawaii was annexed to the United States, they could not longer import Chinese workers, so they had to find other. The national diversity of the workers kept any one block from becoming powerful. This was done to suppress wages and to keep unions out.

While Takaki has been justly criticized for presenting others’ research as his own, Strangers remains one the of most widely used history textbooks. When the Hawaiian planters realized they had become too dependent on Chinese workers, they began requisition workers of other nationalities. These Asian Americans from fourth-generation Chinese Americans to recently arrived Hmong refugees continue to be perceived as strangers, even in the place they call home. Through richly detailed vignettes-by turns bitter, funny, and inspiring-he offers a stunning panorama of a neglected part of. Many companies of the time had supply requisitions which included Asian workers. : In an extraordinary blend of eloquent narrative history, vivid personal recollection, and oral testimony, Ronald Takaki relates the diverse 150-year history of Asian Americans. Palmer called for the use of Chinese laborers. In 1848, when developing the plans for a transcontinental railroad in America, policymaker Aaron H. Then he began to employ Chinese immigrants and found them to be better workers. At first he only employed Hawaiians, but found them to be inefficient workers. Like Howard Zinns A Peoples History, Takakis A Different Mirror offers a rich and rewarding 'peoples view' perspective on the American story.

Hawaiian sugar mill owner, William Hoper, opened his sugar business in 1835. A Different Mirror for Young People brings ethnic history alive through the words of people, including teenagers, who recorded their experiences in letters, diaries, and poems.

Takaki strangers from a different shore