Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #497

by Madeline Y. Hsu

A 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that Asian Americans are the best-educated, highest-income, and best-assimilated racial group in the United States. Before reaching this level of economic success and social assimilation, however, Asian immigrants' path was full of difficult, even demeaning, moments. This book provides a sweeping and nuanced history of Asian Americans, revealing how and why the perception of Asian immigrants changed over time.Asian migrants, in large part Chinese, arrived in significant numbers on the West Coast during the 1850s and 1860s to work in gold mining and on the construction of the transcontinental Railroad. Unlike their contemporary European counterparts, Asians, often stigmatized as "coolies," challenged American ideals of equality with the problem of whether all racial groups could be integrated into America's democracy. The fear of the "Yellow Peril" soon spurred an array of legislative and institutional efforts to segregate them through immigration laws, restrictions on citizenship, and limits on employment, property ownership, access to public services, and civil rights. Prejudices against Asian Americans reached a peak during World War II, when Japanese Americans were interned en masse. It was only with changes in the immigration laws and the social and political activism of the 1960s and 1970s that Asian Americans gained ground and acceptance, albeit in the still stereotyped category of "model minorities."Madeline Y. Hsu weaves a fascinating historical narrative of this "American Dream." She shows how Asian American success, often attributed to innate cultural values, is more a result of the immigration laws, which have largely pre-selected immigrants of high economic and social potential. Asian Americans have, in turn, been used by politicians to bludgeon newer (and more populous) immigrant groups for their purported lack of achievement. Hsu deftly reveals how public policy, which can restrict and also selectively promote certain immigrant populations, is a key reason why some immigrant groups appear to be more naturally successful and why the identity of those groups evolves differently from others.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Adult, Sociology

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2016

About the author

Madeline Y. Hsu is associate professor of history and past director of the Center for Asian American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her books include Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home and the coedited anthology Chinese Americans and the Politics of Race and Culture.

Reviews

[sam]

informative.

[Jessica]

Good quick introduction of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino migration to the United States

[Peter]

The Historian Madeline Y. Hsu wrote Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction. I read the edition that was published in 2017. The book has illustrations and maps. The book has a reference section. The book has a section entitled “further reading” (Hsu 151-154). The book has an index. Hsu wrote “Asian migrations to the Americas proceeded across several centuries of dramatic economic and political transformations” (Hsu xvii). The book covers the history of Asian Americans in North America before the early 19th Century. The book is focused on the history of Asian Americans in the United States. The book includes a brief history of Hawaii. The continental United States became “a Pacific nation” (Hsu 10) in 1850 when California was granted statehood (Hsu 10) Around this time, new vessels for shipping in the 19th Century led to “international travel grew cheaper and available at more ports, facilitating the rapid increase in Asian migrations over the nineteenth century” (Hsu 10). Fear of Chinese immigrants maybe being able to work cheaper than White Americans led to Congress to start limiting Chinese immigrants (Hsu 26-27). This led the United States to limit immigration along racial lines, the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 favored quota of immigration from Northern and Western Europe (Hsu 47-48). Hsu writes, “in conjunction with the international pressures of World War II and the Cold War, civil rights activism forced the removal of overt racial and national-origin discrimination from laws restricting immigration and citizenship” (Hsu xviii). The book ends before the conclusion (Hsu 142-145) by covering how the War of Terror after September 11, 2001, is leading to fear of Muslim Americans that is affecting immigration policy in the United States (Hsu 141-142). The book is readable. The book is a good short introduction to Asian American History as of 2017.

[niki.uu]

3.5.
I'm pretty sure goal of the author was to dismantle the model minority myth by using history to show the struggles of asian american people. I don't think her intent was super clear as it was hard to decipher tone in the writing. Kinda felt like i was just reading a list of facts.
I also felt like the impacts of 9/11 were a little glossed over, only a couple pages were spent talking about it.
But i thought all the information was really interesting! I learned a lot.

[Adam Cummings]

Top notch overview of Asian American history. Madeline Hsu’s knowledge on the topic and eloquent writing makes the pocket sized book dense with facts and interesting cases that inspire one to explore further.

A pocket-sized professional development for any teacher who may feel weak in this topic or an appetizer for one looking to springboard into their own research on the topic I enjoyed this read and finished it with a million questions about the different facets of Asian American history.

[N]

This is a very necessary book about the history of how Asian American communities came to play in the United States. From migration, assimilation, and navigating complicated identities and structural racism, it is a very important piece of information and history.

[Liz]

An incredible and important history.

[Chiyeung Lau]

solid refresher

[Thomas]

A bit blandly written but more comprehensive than expected

[Sandy Goldstein]

Read for class, very informative and grounded with really helpful statistics. A bit dense but not so bad compared to other academic writing

[Alice Liu]

Informative but dull