Chinese American history is full of stories that detail the often forgotten, yet tremendous suffering and endurance of Chinese immigrants. We compiled a list of must-read books from key time periods on Chinese American history. If you want to get woke on Chinese American history, you have to start with these summer reads.

  1. 1 Pre-Exclusion Era (1850-1882)


    The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America by Beth Lew-Williams

    Under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese laborers became the first group of people banned from entering the U.S. on the basis of race and class. 

    Lew-Williams seamlessly weaves together agonizing accounts of anti-Chinese violence and campaigns at the local and national levels. These accounts occur during the decades leading up to the act. 

    She argues that racial violence and vigilantism prompted stricter immigration control and new exclusionary policies. In return, the policies incited greater violence and constructed the concept of the “alien” in modern U.S. history.


What's Your Reaction?

confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
1
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
hate hate
0
hate
lol lol
0
lol
love love
3
love
omg omg
0
omg
win win
1
win

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Coco Xu

Choose A Format
Personality quiz
Series of questions that intends to reveal something about the personality
Trivia quiz
Series of questions with right and wrong answers that intends to check knowledge
Poll
Voting to make decisions or determine opinions
Story
Formatted Text with Embeds and Visuals
List
The Classic Internet Listicles
Countdown
The Classic Internet Countdowns
Open List
Submit your own item and vote up for the best submission
Ranked List
Upvote or downvote to decide the best list item
Meme
Upload your own images to make custom memes
Video
Youtube, Vimeo or Vine Embeds
Audio
Soundcloud or Mixcloud Embeds
Image
Photo or GIF
Gif
GIF format