Asian American History: An Introduction

Catalog 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 along side 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.