The Making of Asian America

June 8, 2015
To honor the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, Lee (Angel Island), University of Minnesota historian and director of the Immigration History Research Center, tackles the sensitive subject of Asian-American assimilation in this ambitious, sweeping, and insightful survey. Charting the immigration story of individual nations rather than employing the “simplistic and monolithic ‘model minority’ lens,” Lee opens with 19th-century indentured servitude as Chinese “coolies” arrived in the Americas, and moves through the subsequent experiences of immigrants from Japan, Korea, and a range of South and Southeast Asian countries. Part two tracks each group’s struggle for acceptance, Part Three covers the impact of WWII, and Part Four addresses the 1.2 million displaced Southeast Asian refugees who settled in the U.S. after 1975. Lee brings her Chinese-American background into the mix, dating her roots to a great-great-great-grandfather who arrived during the California Gold Rush. As the rush wound down, the Chinese provided services such as laundries and restaurants—self-employment offering a solution to the harsh reality of workplace discrimination. Despite assimilation and socio-economic success, Lee reminds readers that “Asian Americans are seen as Asians, not Americans, and come to embody whatever threat the land of their ancestry allegedly poses to the United States.” Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

June 1, 2015

Lee's (history, Univ. of Minnesota; coauthor Angel Island) comprehensive treatise on the experiences of Asians in the United States mostly focuses on the 20th century, but the overall scope is broader in both time and space. Readers will find additional coverage of Asian immigration to Canada and Latin America beginning with the Spanish empire's Philippine-Mexico trade and concluding with an examination of Asian America in the present day. Lee reveals how U.S. policies impacted Asians throughout the hemisphere, for example the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act influenced other countries in the region to adopt similar legislation. This work pokes holes in the "model minority" myth by pointing out that Asians in the United States are overrepresented at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, and that before World War II, the group was frequently portrayed as being incompatible with American society. VERDICT An impressive work that details how this diverse population has both swayed and been affected by the United States. Highly recommended for readers interested in this important topic. Another exceptional book on this subject is Shelly Sang-Hee Lee's A New History of Asian America. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/15.]--Joshua Wallace, Ranger Coll., TX

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