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Books : A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural AmericaIn association with Amazon.comRating:  - Finally some truth in American historyThis book was used in one of my undergrad courses and I was thrilled to have a book that filled in the blanks and expanded on the crap textbook makers such as McGraw Hill, et.al. publish to public school students. Our history, American history is watered-down and skewed in the textbooks. Thanks you Mr. Takaki for bringing truth to American history. This book made me want to explore different cultures more. To have learned that the Irish worked alongside Blacks in building railroads and in shipyards without major issues was mind-opening; to learn that the some of the first Blacks that were here in the U.S were indentured servants and not merely slaves was flooring; to learn that Native American tribes number more than Cherokee, Choctaw, Mohican, Seminole and Crow is fascinating and learning that stereotypes date long before Long John Silver. This book told me what I wanted to know and my junior high and high school history teachers couldn't. This book is becoming a part of my library (personal and professional). Rating: - A GREAT HISTORY LESSON HEREThis book was excellent, well-written, thoroughly research, and Mr. Takaki really goes into depth about the subject. You can learn a lot of historical facts about different ethnic groups. Mr. Takaki tells some unforgettable stories, and voices from different ethnic groups some happy some sad but this is such a great book that teachers should use this in their high school and college history classes. Full of history. He offers a fresh perspective and eyewitness accounts of our nations past. A RE-VISIONING. Rating:  - Good BookThis book I am reading for one of my diversity classes. It is very informative Rating:  - Bonzai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ron Takaki may be a liberal pantywaist--and, make no mistake, this is a politicized book--but at least the guy can write lucidly. So you'll be able to follow along without nodding off as Takaki goes after the "Anglos" and deifies the downtrodden blacks, Indians, Asians, etc. It's all a question of balance and emphasis: Thomas Jefferson is presented as a racist who banged his slave, not the genius who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Martin Luther King is presented as the saint who led the Montgomery bus boycott, not the guy who plagiarized his doctoral dissertation and had numerous affairs with (and physically abused) white women, while supposedly being the moral paragon of the Civil Rights Movement. Par for the course. That is what multiculturalism is all about. It is an interesting book, and not overly pretentious (except for the strained theme of whites-as-Prospero and minorities-as-Caliban which Takaki unleashes early, but then forgets about for most of the book's remainder). The last ten or twenty pages are the most overtly political, and liberals will nod approvingly, while others will either snort with derision or furrow their brows. Either way, I recommend the book. You'll either be validated, or become conscious of how the enemy thinks. Rating: - Excellent BookThe author's writing is excellent, well researched and documented. It starts out with a "spring board" analogy from Shakespeare, showing how we can all be prone to prejudgement of someone whom we don't understand. From this we get the story of many of America's ethnic minorities, showing what a many portions of each ethnic group experienced. I was assigned this book for a diverstiy class that I had to take in college. Too often authors will try and make whites out to be the devil. Takaki doesn't. If one understands this books to be an incomplete history (the history of minorities), then they can understand that it compliments dead-white dude's history well. Students of history need to make sure they are versed in both. The books only limit is that he cannot show the diversity within certain ethnic groups. For example, not all members of a certain ethnic group bore the same experiences. Although limited in that sense, it would take volumes of books to tell the story of each ethnic group in each region. So I don't hold that against him. Plus -- I would like it if he would focus a little more on the friendships that occur between ethnic groups. Those examples which make us proud of our past and give us hope for the future. |
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