Asian American History: An Introduction
Course Description
Asian Americans are among the fastest growing social group in the country but also have a long and complicated history. Our course will go deeply into important features of that past, beginning in the mid-19th century and come up to the present. Asian Americans are a pan-ethnic group as well as distinct ethnicities and share experiences of migrants, encounters with an evolving United States, racial and ethnic prejudices, violence, accomplishment, community building, and perseverance. Their history is one of suffering but also achievement and resilience. We will place their experiences in the context of American life and politics, with attention to immigration policy, federal and local law, economics, social attitudes, war, diplomacy, and regional variations. We will also consider comparative dimensions and consider Asian American experiences alongside those of other minority social groups. The course will emphasize reading of primary and secondary materials and require original research that will culminate in a term paper.
Meet the Instructor: Gordon Chang
"I have wondered about Asian American history from an early age: I am a fourth generation Californian and have a long family history connected to the Gold Country, Oakland, and the Bay Area. Though I had a wonderful education at Princeton, I learned nothing about Asian Americans and self-taught. After coming to Stanford for graduate school many years ago, I taught the first Asian American history class at the University. My understanding of the Asian American past has evolved, deepened, and become more complex over time. My experiences as a social activist have also contributed to my understanding of American life and society. My research and writing have included on immigration and exclusion history, the experiences of Chinese railroad workers, the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the war in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, the Asian American activist movement, anti-Asian violence, and the difficulties scientists of Asian ancestries have experienced."
Of related interest
Asian Myths, Modern Retellings
Mark Twain and American Culture
