Description
An inclusive and landmark history, emphasizing how essential Asian American experiences are to any understanding of US history
Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare.
Despite significant Asian American breakthroughs in American politics, arts, and popular culture in the twenty-first century, a profound lack of understanding of Asian American history permeates American culture. Choy traces how anti-Asian violence and its intersection with misogyny and other forms of hatred, the erasure of Asian American experiences and contributions, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted are prominent themes in Asian American history. This ambitious book is fundamental to understanding the American experience and its existential crises of the early twenty-first century.
Table of Contents
PREFACE
Writing in the Years of Great Hatred
INTRODUCTION
The Multiple Origins of Asian American Histories
ONE
2020: The Health of the Nation
TWO
1975: Trauma and Transformation
THREE
1968: What’s in the Name “Asian American”?
FOUR
1965: The Many Faces of Post-1965 Asian America
INTERLUDE
1965 Reprise: The Faces Behind the Food
FIVE
1953: Mixed Race Lives
SIX
1941 and 1942: The Days That You Remember
SEVEN
1919: Declaration of Independence
EIGHT
1875: Homage
CONCLUSION
1869: These Wounds
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
