For Professor Sowell (Sociology, UCLA) ethnic America presents "a
story of many very different heritages. . . the story of the human
spirit in its many guises." Yet underneath the story lies the moral
- never clearly stated - that America is truly the land of
opportunity. In his all-too-rapid summarizing of ethnic histories
("Jewish Americans Today" receives less than two pages), Sowell
searches out evidence (almost all from secondary sources) to
present ethnicity in favorable light. Thus, the Irish may have
developed their urban political machines, but "they were by no
means the originators of corrupt politics. They were simply more
successful at it, and performed with a warmer human touch." The
Germans "quickly established a reputation for hard work,
thoroughness, and thriftiness" and became renowned as "the nation's
best dirt farmers." While Jews originally had to live in
overcrowded tenements like other immigrant arrivals, their
cleanliness protected them from some slum diseases; and, while they
saw education as a route to success, their co-arrivals, the
Italians, devalued education but got ahead through their
willingness to work harder. The real success story, though, is
presented by the Japanese, "emerging from war-time internment to
earn median incomes 32 percent above the national average." With
the blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans, Sowell faces a more
difficult task in demonstrating progress, but rises to it. "Their
rates of progress" he reminds us, "look very different if measured
from 1619, 1865, 1900, or 1954." Assuming the long perspective, he
sees the black race as a whole as having "moved from a position of
utter destitution - in money, knowledge, and rights - to a place
alongside other groups emerging in the great struggles of life."
For Puerto Ricans and Chicanos as well, it all depends on your
perspective. Most mainland Puerto Rican adults are still first
generation, and "Few groups in American history could claim more
progress in as short a span. . . ." Chicanos similarly have rapidly
moved "from the rural Mexican cultures of the 1920s to modern urban
America. . . a very long journey in human terms." Sowell seldom
mentions the melting pot, but that's essentially what we have here:
the old melting pot, by now a rather dull dish. If it's the human
drama of ethnicity you want, try Morrison and Zabusky's American
Mosaic (1980). If it's provocative analysis 180 degrees opposed to
Sowell's self-congratulatory and depoliticized treatment, try
Stephen Steinberg's The Ethnic Myth (p. 276). The account here
borders on being yet another apologia for benign neglect. (Kirkus
Reviews)
This classic work by the distinguished economist traces the history
of nine American ethnic groups--the Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians,
Chinese, African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans.
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