50books_poc | #7: Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Takaki brings together a multitude of voices to tell the rich, complex story of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States: African Americans, Asian Americans, Indians, Jews, Latinos, and more. He begins with the colonization of North America by the Europeans and "the racialization of savagery", whereby the Europeans came to believe that the Indians were different from and inferior to them, and that this difference was based on race and skin color. Then he goes on to examine the experiences of other peoples, taking a roughly chronological approach and devoting each chapter to a specific group and their experiences in a particular period. Takaki lets his subjects speak for themselves constantly; the text is full of quotations from songs, poems, prose, and interviews. Like Lies My Teacher Told Me, this is one of those books which opens your eyes to the history you're not necessarily taught in schools and to many overlooked aspects of the rich cultural and ethnic heritage of the United States.

I think I'd also like to read Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore, which is a history of Asian Americans. Can anyone recommend other books on American history written by PoC? I'm especially interested in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Not the time period you're especially interested in, but I really liked Helen Zia's Asian American Dreams. Not strictly history, either--it's History plus some of her personal history & commentary, etc.

I'd like to see what other folks here rec too!

Takaki spoke at a TESOL conference I was at--great speaker, really interesting guy.

Most of the histories I'm familiar with are local or regional, not U.S.-in-general, but if that would suit you, I can go rummage through the bookshelves.

Ooh, thanks for the rec! I'm just about to finish a history of the American colonial period, and while it's pretty good for a history book written by a white guy (loads better than the ones I recall from school, that's for sure) I find myself talking back to the author pretty frequently—it's definitely not as broad a perspective as I was hoping. So thanks for the rec, this sounds exactly like what I want to read next!

I too will be glad for other recs! Anyone know of any good Colonial-era histories written by PoC that they might recommend?

I'm reading that! I'm reading that! Only through the first section, but so far, it makes me very happy. (Well, in a totally disturbed and unhappy way. You know how it goes.) Takaki uses Caliban to discuss race in colonial America. Caliban! It's like history slashed with fanfic. (How's that for a OTP?)

(Also, based on stuff in that first section? I've been reading far too much Thomas Jefferson apologia these past years. I've gotta just suck it up and embrace the knowledge that if someone feels the need to write apologia for someone else, then the someone else did something bad. Not kinda-bad-but-handwavings-and-mumblings. Just: something bad.)

I think I've seen the Zia recced elsewhere (by

oyceter?) -- I'll bump it up the list!

I tend to want to start with general stuff and drill down from there into bits that pique my interest, but I'd probably be interested in West-Coast type stuff, sure!

Yeah, I really like the Caliban metaphor. I'm sure going to be thinking about it next time I read or see The Tempest, because (kind of embarrassingly) that's not something I'd particularly noticed in that play before.

(And Franklin too, and that whole thing about "increasing the Lovely White" by "excluding all blacks and tawneys".)

I know I never got that The Tempest referenced the New World. The last time I watched it I did find myself wondering if the island was some archetypal place that I was supposed to recognize, but never got farther than that. (Hm. It seems that Browning got it, what with his reference to pumpkins.)

However, I did get that Caliban was a stand-in for people of color, in the Sunnydale-vamipres-and-demons way. Monsters so often are. :-/

On a quick rummage through the shelves, you might like to take a look at the anthology Northwest Lands, Northwest Peoples: Readings in Environmental History, Dale D. Goble and Paul W. Hirt, eds. (I'm not sure what the cultural backgrounds of the contributors look like, honestly, flipping through the bios, which are mostly lists of college degrees. Nobody mentions a tribal affiliation, but a couple of people say things like "has worked with the Nez Perce for 25 years" or whatever, which is probably a sign that they aren't tribal members).

Harold Mackey's The Kalapuyans: A Sourcebook on the Indians of the Willamette Valley was reissued in 2004 with substantial new material contributed by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (which co-published the new edition). It's interesting to see this sort of adaptation of an existing ethnography by a tribal government -- they've really repurposed the book.

I read Sucheng Chan's This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860-1910 a few years ago for a project; it's not bad if a bit dry. And I know there was a big oral history project done in northern California with Nisei farmers a couple of years ago; I thought they had a web presence but a little rummaging isn't turning it up. Anyhow, if you get excited about 20th C agriculture, there is a considerable literature out there about various groups' contributions.

And...I dunno, what is piquing your interest? *GRIN* I mean, I could go on for quite a while, here.

Quintard Taylor's In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990.

Ostensibly a history of African Americans, but as Taylor points out early, race in the west is anything but a black/white binary, and you can't really have a good discussion of the history of African Americans in the west unless you're talking about everyone else, too. And the book covers an enormous section of U.S. geography: from the west coast to Texas / Oklahoma / Kansas / etc.

So if you're looking for general works on U.S. History, it probably qualifies.

Willamette Valley? *reads your userinfo* Are you and I local to each other?

If I can hijack

gwyneira's thread for local recs, the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla published Wiyạ́xaỵxt/Wiyáakảaawn/As days go by.

And then there's Marie Rose Wong's Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland Oregon. (I'm halfway through that, and am frustrated somewhat by it. But also pleased that it exists.)

We're not local-local, but we're kinda-sorta-local (I'm south of you).

Oooh, okay, I need a copy of that (though I don't often end up working out that way, it looks like a neat read). I keep meaning to road-trip out to Tamastslikt, but last time we were in Pendleton everyone was grouchy and a long stop was not in the cards. Makes sense that they'd have a good bookstore, though.

That sounds like a good one. *adds to list*

I was assigned this book in college and I love it!

Haha, yes, I was just going to pop in here and rec her! I also haven't read this Takaki, but I've read Strangers from a Different Shore and liked it a lot.

Strangers from a Different Shore is now high on my acquire-and-read list, but I think first I want to read Andrea Smith's Conquest, since you and

coffeeandink have recced it so highly.

The first one sounds like it might be a good place to start, until I figure out what does pique my interest and can get more specific. :)

YES! Read Conquest! It is awesome! Awesome!

... now I hope I am not getting people's expectations so high that the book cannot ever live up to them...

#7: Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

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