|
Showing 1 - 1 of
1 matches in All Departments
Far East, Down South: Asians in the American South offers a
collection of ten insightful essays that illuminate the
little-known history and increasing presence of Asian immigrants in
the American southeast. In sharp contrast to the "melting pot"
reputation of the United States, the American South-with its
history of slavery, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement-has
been perceived in stark and simplistic demographic terms. In Far
East, Down South, editors Raymond A. Mohl, John E. Van Sant, and
Chizuru Saeki provide a collection of essential essays that
restores and explores an overlooked part of the South's story-that
of Asian immigration to the region. These essays form a
comprehensive overview of key episodes and issues in the history of
Asian immigrants to the South. During Reconstruction, southern
entrepreneurs experimented with the replacement of slave labor with
Chinese workers. As in the West, Chinese laborers played a role in
the development of railroads. Japanese farmers also played a more
widespread role than is usually believed. Filipino sailors
recruited by the US Navy in the early decades of the twentieth
century often settled with their families in the vicinity of naval
ports such as Corpus Christi, Biloxi, and Pensacola. Internment
camps brought Japanese Americans to Arkansas. Marriages between
American servicemen and Japanese, Korean, Filipina, Vietnamese, and
nationals in other theaters of war created many thousands of
blended families in the South. In recent decades, the South is the
destination of internal immigration as Asian Americans spread out
from immigrant enclaves in West Coast and Northeast urban areas.
Taken together, the book's essays document numerous fascinating
themes: the historic presence of Asians in the South dating back to
the mid-nineteenth century; the sources of numerous waves of
contemporary Asian immigration to the South; and the steady spread
of Asians out from the coastal port cities. Far East, Down South
adds a vital new dimension to popular understanding of southern
history.
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.