Customer Reviews

The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight and New Beginnings (Asian American History & Cultu)

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The sub-title of this book is "Stories of War, Revolution, Flight, and New Beginnings." That about sums it up. Sucheng Chan, a well-known Southeast Asian scholar, edited the book which consists mostly of contributions by her Vietnamese students at the University of California in Santa Barbara. The book begins with 100 pages covering briefly the history of Vietnam, the Vietnam War, and the refugee crisis in its aftermath. We then have 150 pages of personal accounts by 15 Vietnamese American students of their escapes from Vietnam and and lives in America.

The book is hardly unique as rooms could be filled with books about the Vietnam War and about Vietnamese living in the U.S., and quite a few of them have delved more deeply than this one. The virtues of "The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation" are a good introduction, well written background chapters, an epilog by the editor --a former refugee -- good notes and a good bibliography. The concept of a collaboration between students and teacher is also interesting and is fully explained in the introduction.

Smallchief

Since the history of Vietnam (prior to the Vietnam War) is often difficult to find, this book gives a brief and objective (if there is such a thing) history of Vietnam. I found it very helpful as an introduction to my understanding of Vietnamese history as a PhD student working on Vietnamese American literature.

Someone who is "1.5 Generation" is someone who immigrated to America at a very young age, not quite 1st generation and not quite 2nd generation. This book is excellent for those like me, who are of this generation.

I completely agree with Smallchief's review. Half of the book is a quick history of the American involvement in Vietnam and the refugee process that followed that period.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a 1.5 generation immigrant from Vietnam or who has any close friends or family from this group.