A multilayered world history that adds materially to the sadly evergreen topic of immigration exploitation and exclusion.
A Columbia University professor of Asian American studies tracks Chinese immigration to California, Australia, and South Africa from 1848 to 1899 and the subsequent racist backlash.
In an ambitious, diligent work of archival research that spans three continents (Northern California and the Yukon, the Victoria midlands, and South Africa) Ngai tracks the influx of Chinese immigrants in response to the discovery of gold—and the ugly dynamics surrounding what became known as the “Chinese Question”: “Were Chinese a racial threat to white, Anglo-American countries, and should Chinese be barred from them?” The rushes to the gold fields attracted not just Chinese, but many other immigrant groups. However, it “occasioned the first mass contact between Chinese and Euro-Americans” and provoked new challenges in an already racially divided society. The Chinese immigrated in order to chase fresh opportunities, many as indentured servants or volunteer free labor. As the numbers increased and they vied for work with poor White laborers, the Whites viewed them as threats, incapable of being assimilated. “Americans and British alike opposed the ‘slavery’ of the Chinese—but did not support their freedom,” writes Ngai. In Australia, the large numbers of Chinese immigrants led to racist hysteria, perpetuated by White colonial settlers, of being overrun by “devouring locusts.” In South Africa, the experiment to lure Chinese through contract labor to work the mines when not enough African laborers would do it proved costly and politically disastrous. Ultimately, exclusion laws were erected, prompting debate over free trade and hurting the once-thriving import-export businesses between China and the rest of the world. The author also examines the makeup of the Chinese communities that immigrated—with illuminating archival photos—the businesses they created, and the sustained racist backlash against them. This is intricate history that may lose some general readers, but students of the subject will be well rewarded.
A multilayered world history that adds materially to the sadly evergreen topic of immigration exploitation and exclusion.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-393-63416-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.
A timely distilled version of the powerful report on racism in the U.S.
Created by Lyndon Johnson’s executive order in 1967, the Kerner Commission was convened in response to inner-city riots in cities like Newark and Detroit, and its findings have renewed relevance in the wake of the George Floyd verdict and other recent police brutality cases. The report, named for Otto Kerner, the chairman of the commission and then governor of Illinois, explored the systemic reasons why an “apocalyptic fury” broke out that summer even in the wake of the passage of significant civil rights and voting acts—a response with striking echoes in recent events across the country. In this edited and contextualized version, New Yorker staff writer Cobb, with the assistance of Guariglia, capably demonstrates the continued relevance and prescience of the commission’s findings on institutionalized discriminatory policies in housing, education, employment, and the media. The commission was not the first to address racial violence in the century, and it would not be the last, but the bipartisan group of 11 members—including two Blacks and one woman—was impressively thorough in its investigation of the complex overarching social and economic issues at play. “The members were not seeking to understand a singular incident of disorder,” writes Cobb, “but the phenomenon of rioting itself.” Johnson wanted to know what happened, why it happened, and what could be done so it doesn’t happen “again and again.” Of course, it has happened again and again, and many of the report’s recommendations remain unimplemented. This version of the landmark report features a superb introduction by Cobb and a closing section of frequently asked questions—e.g., “How come nothing has been done about these problems?” The book contains plenty of fodder for crucial national conversations and many excellent ideas for much-needed reforms that could be put into place now.
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-892-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.
An epistolary memoir of Nelson Mandela’s prison years.
From August 1962 to February 1990, Mandela (1918-2013) was imprisoned by the apartheid state of South Africa. During his more than 27 years in prison, the bulk of which he served on the notorious Robben Island prison off the shores of Cape Town, he wrote thousands of letters to family and friends, lawyers and fellow African National Congress members, prison officials, and members of the government. Heavily censored for both content and length, letters from Robben Island and South Africa’s other political prisons did not always reach their intended targets; when they did, the censorship could make them virtually unintelligible. To assemble this vitally important collection, Venter (A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island, 2006, etc.), a longtime Johannesburg-based editor and journalist, pored through these letters in various public and private archives across South Africa and beyond as well as Mandela’s own notebooks, in which he transcribed versions of these letters. The result is a necessary, intimate portrait of the great leader. The man who emerges is warm and intelligent and a savvy, persuasive, and strategic thinker. During his life, Mandela was a loving husband and father, a devotee of the ANC’s struggle, and capable of interacting with prominent statesmen and the ANC’s rank and file. He was not above flattery or hard-nosed steeliness toward his captors as suited his needs, and he was always yearning for freedom, not only—or even primarily—for himself, but rather for his people, a goal that is the constant theme of this collection and was the consuming vision of his entire time as a prisoner. Venter adds tremendous value with his annotations and introductions to the work as a whole and to the book’s various sections.
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63149-117-7
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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