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Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community
 
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Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community [Paperback]

Peter Kwong (Author), Dusanka Miscevic (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Price: $21.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Paperback, January 1, 2007 $21.95  

Book Description

January 1, 2007
A magisterial history of the Chinese experience in America, hailed by Howard Zinn as "a wonderful book" that "fills an enormous gap in our history."

Described by the Washington Post Book World upon its initial release as "shocking, depressing but ultimately uplifting," Chinese America is award-winning author Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic's definitive portrait of one of the oldest immigrant groups and fastest-growing communities in the United States.

Drawing on years of original research and firsthand reporting across the United States and Asia, it charts 150 years of American history from the Chinese frontiersmen of the Wild West to the high-tech transnationals of today's booming Chinese American "ethnoburbs." Kwong and Miscevic apply new thinking to an immigrant story too often told as a simple tale of triumph over adversity.

This paradigm-shifting book gives us an entirely original and fresh examination of the new immigrant communities that are transforming present-day America. Chinese America offers a new picture of America's development and the complex connections between immigration, globalization, and foreign policy that exist within our history. Twenty-seven b/w photographs.

Frequently Bought Together

Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community + The Chinese in America: A Narrative History + Remaking Chinese America: Immigration, Family, and Community, 1940--1965
Price For All Three: $60.50

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Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the country's most esteemed scholars of Asian America...promises to be an exciting publishing event. -- Mike Wallace, co-author of Gotham --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Peter Kwong is the author of several books, including Chinatown, N.Y. and Forbidden Workers. He is a professor at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Dusanka Miscevic is a writer and translator and holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history from Columbia University. They live in New York City.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 518 pages
  • Publisher: New Press, The (January 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1595581197
  • ISBN-13: 978-1595581198
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary History of the Immigrant Experience, November 28, 2005
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Every so often a history writer gets it right. This is just such a book...what extraordinary riches about the Chinese experience
such as the contrast between Uptown and Downtown Chinese, the building of Chinatowns throughout the United States, the contributions of Chinese doctors to the expansion of the West, the terrible experience of the Exclusion Act, the inroads into Hollywood. Consider that the idea of California as the vegetable capital of the United States was the result of innovative Chinese farmers who understood how to use water and irrigation techniques in the West. (They also used new water techniques to mine gold in the hills, creating "Chinese walls" of stones that can still be located in the Gold Country.) Never boring, this is a wonderful book for a gift. Highly recommended.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, April 5, 2006
By 
Antero Pietila (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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"Chinese America" is a fabulous book chronicling a misunderstood ethnic group. Today's stereotype is that all Chinese Americans are wealthy overachievers. This book debunks that myth and is very good at explaining how it came about as a result of only professionals being admitted to the U.S. at a certain point and most of those professionals being the creme of the crop from Taiwan. This contrasts with the early immigration which came largely from the Hong Kong region and consisted of rural people so discriminated against that 60 percent of Chinese in New York City in the 1920s were engaged in the hand laundry business, not by choice but because of discrimination.
This is not an America-bashing book, not at all. It only retells a complex story that today is not widely understood.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A daring effort to cover the entire story, January 19, 2009
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G. Glick (Pittsburgh-born) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community (Paperback)
I am hard pressed to name any remotely comparable book covering the history of Chinese Americans. Most of the others either subscribe to the myth of the happy assimilationist Asian of mid-century or if they do, fail to address the true intra-community conflicts in recent history. This work is a true trail-blazer. Contrary to the implications of the one negative review this book provides an eye-opening and even-handed review of the real struggles in the Chinese community. Bravo!
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