Anti-Communist Minorities in the U.S.: Political Activism of Ethnic Refugees [Hardcover]

Ieva Zake (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: May 26, 2009

This volume takes a completely new look at two controversial topics: American anti-Communism and the Cold War. First, it reveals the little known history of anti-Communism in the US from the point of view of ethnic refugee/émigré groups, and also offers insight into the lives of minority groups that have hitherto not received scholarly attention, often due to their politically controversial position. The book consists of chapters dedicated to particular ethnic groups, as well as an introduction and conclusion. The discussed groups include Latvians, Ukrainians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Vietnamese, Hmong and Cubans, possibly also Hungarians or Romanians. The introduction provides the historical and sociological framework, and the conclusion undertakes a comparative analysis of ethnic anti-Communism and refugee politics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The scholars who have contributed to Zake's collection offer a unique look at a critical yet often overlooked dimension of ethnic life in the United States during the post-WWII period.Anti-communism has exerted an important influence on the politics within many ethnic communities and they in turn had an impact on postwar U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics often disproportionate to their numbers.Anti-Communist Minorities in the U.S. thus fills an important gap in the historiography." - John J. Bukowczyk, Professor of History, Wayne State University, and Editor, Journal of American Ethnic History
"This book will provide a very useful addition to the literature on American anti-communism. It deals with groups and issues that have been neglected in the study of American immigration history and politics. And, it offers an opportunity to develop some comparative themes and analyses of the dynamics within different ethnic groups facing similar issues." - Harvey Klehr, Professor of Political Science, Emory University
"That America is a nation of immigrants is a long-accepted truism, yet oddly scholars have largely neglected the contributions of immigrant-ethnic minorities to the development of American popular anticommunism and the politics of the Cold War era. Anti-Communist Minorities in the U.S makes a major and much needed contribution to historical literature by providing thoroughly researched essays on the activities of a wide array of immigrant-ethnic communities." - John Earl Haynes, Historian at the Library of Congress, Author of Red Scare of Red Menace? American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era and In Denial:Historians, Communism, and Espionage
"With the Cold War in its various stages in the background, the exiles from communism created their own political diasporas dedicated to bringing down the oppressive regimes in their homelands. They haven't just joined American anti-communism - they co-created it and kept it alive for decades. This ambitious volume offers a comparative and interdisciplinary look at their experiences in the post World War II decades, reinvigorating a scholarly debate on Cold War, ethnic anti-communism, and a political mission of exiles as a special category of immigrants." - Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann, Professor of History, Eastern Connecticut State University
"Zake offers us an excellent glimpse into the issue of political emigration, using the inspiring category of so-called ethnic anti-Communism. Cold War history mixed with analyses of the American multiethnic society let us observe not only the direct clash between the U.S. and the Soviet Union but also help us to understand the complexity of political exile as well as the underestimated impact of this phenomenon on contemporary history." - Slawomir Lukasiewicz, Historian at the Institute of National Remembrance, Lublin, Poland.
"In sum, Ieva Zake has put together a very nice collection of essays that fill a gap in the existing literatures concerning both anticommunism and immigrant groups in the United States. The book surely should find its way into university libraries and would be appropriate for use in courses on immigration history." - Carl Bon Tempo, The University at Albany – SUNY

About the Author

Ieva Zake is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rowan University. She has published on feminism, neo-liberalism in post-Communist contexts and the history of nationalism. She is also an author of a book on Latvian nationalist intellectuals and their contribution to anti-democratic politics in Latvia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230606814
• ISBN-13: 978-0230606814
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,292,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)