Other Immigrants $22.00 The Global Origins of the American People
David M. Reimers
ISBN 0814775357
399 pages
Paperback
Release Date: 1/1/2005
Also available in Cloth
Click to enlarge
View the Table of Contents.
http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/0814775349toc.pdf
Read the Preface.
http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/0814775349pref.pdf
Preface
A good deal of my prior research and writing has focused on immigrants other than Europeans, migrants some scholars label “people of color.” These immigrants include Latinos, Asians, and blacks. I pulled together some of my thoughts on these millions of persons for an essay published by the American Historical Association’s Teaching Diversity series, under the title “Immigration of People of Color to the United States.” That essay was short, requiring much condensing, and I believe that the topic required a larger study. The result is this book, which gives a fuller picture of these newcomers to the United States.
Some of my thoughts have been presented to other historians. The title of the book owes much to a course on the global origins of Americans, about which I learned when I was invited by Professor George Kirsch and Dean Mary Ann O’Connell of Manhattan College to give the Robert Christian Lecture there in 1999. I benefited from preparing the lecture and also from a meeting with the members of the history department to discuss the book. Special thanks go to Professor Linda Place and the organizers of the conference “The Legacy of the KoreanWar” held at the President
Harry S. Truman Library in the fall of 2001. I gave a paper there on the impact of the Korean War and immigration of Koreans to the United States. Thanks also go to Bill Stueck for inviting me to speak on new Asian immigration to the South at the University of Georgia in June 2002.
Many libraries have been helpful, especially that of New York University and the New York Public Library. The New York University staff has promptly responded to my request for materials. Marian Smith of the Immigration Service was helpful in providing materials from her agency.
While I do not agree with the conclusions of many papers published by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., Mark Krikorian’s generous e-mails have been of great assistance, especially in providing newspaper coverage of immigration to the United States.
ix
Several friends have read the manuscript. Nancy Foner read a first draft and was of enormous help. She not only read with care and made many suggestions but also returned material quickly. Len Dinnerstein, per usual, made many suggestions on the first five chapters. Richard Alba and
Marilyn Halter provided criticism on several chapters. Richard Hull read the material on black immigrants. Elliott Barkan was especially helpful in dealing with Asians and Middle Easterners. K. Scott Wong commented on the chapters on Asian immigrants, and Steve Scheinberg read an early
draft of the entire manuscript and provided criticism. Kat Morgan and Rebecca Reimers proved to be excellent copy editors and proofreaders.
Kat also prepared the index. Thanks, too, to Fred Binder and Roger
Daniels.
x | Preface
+++++++++
"The post-1965 immigration to the United States is larger and far more diverse than the 'New Immigration,' which had such profound an impact upon virtually every aspect of American life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Reimers has written a comprehensive account of this new immigration, supplementing and in some respects transforming a story which a generation ago had been largely focused upon European immigration."
—Institute of Historical Research
"While some social scientists write panicky articles about the 'changing face' of American immigration in the 21st century, historian David Reimers prefers the long view. His measured, nuanced history of black, Latino, and Asian immigration to the United States explains how, when, and why these groups came or were brought here. Shunning the Eurocentric perspective on migration to the United States, Reimers substitutes this rich chronicle that explains the contributions migrants of color made and continue to make to America's economy, society, and culture. Scholars must have it on their bookshelves; policy makers ought to, as well."
—Alan M. Kraut, American University
"The capstone of ground-breaking work on immigration, Reimer's thoughtful history recognizes the ambiguity and subjectivity of race, noting that individuals often define themselves more complexly than census forms allow."
—NYU Today"In Other Immigrants David Reimers cements his position as a leading interpreter of recent and contemporary immigration. He uses his profound understanding of the process to weave the stories of individual newcomers into the epic of immigration to America showing that these latter day 'huddled masses,' largely from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, have much in common with their predecessors."
—Roger Daniels, author of Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882
Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians represent three of every four immigrants who arrived in the United States after 1970. Yet despite their large numbers and long history of movement to America, non-Europeans are conspicuously absent from many books about immigration.
In Other Immigrants, David M. Reimers offers the first comprehensive account of non-European immigration, chronicling the compelling and diverse stories of frequently overlooked Americans. Reimers traces the early history of Black, Hispanic, and Asian immigrants from the fifteenth century through World War II, when racial hostility led to the virtual exclusion of Asians and aggression towards Blacks and Hispanics. He then tells the story of post-1945 immigration, when these groups dominated the immigration statistics and began to reshape American society.
The capstone to a lifetime of groundbreaking work on immigration, Reimers's thoughtful history recognizes the ambiguity and subjectivity of race, noting that individuals often define themselves more complexly than census forms allow. However classified, record numbers of immigrants are streaming to the United States and creating the most diverse society in the world. Other Immigrants is a timely account of their arrival.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David M. Reimers is emeritus professor of history at New York University. He is the author of Still in the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America and The Immigrant Experience and co-author, with Leonard Dinnerstein and Roger Nichols, of Natives and Strangers: A Multicultural History of Americas.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment