takaki ronald a different mirror a history of multicultural america

The task was to recover the histories that had been lost or hidden and write them down as quickly as possible before they disappeared again. ) That was the 'new' version of American history that was emerging in the late 60's and into the 70's when I was in graduate school and just beginning my career as a teacher. Sometime in the late 60's a competing version appeared - so-called ethnic histories, the stories of this or that 'unmeltable' population (African Americans, Native Americans, women, Asian Americans. That is the history I was taught in the 50's and early 60's as I was growing up and coming of age. When the first edition of A Different Mirrorwas published in 1993, Publishers Weekly called it “a brilliant revisionist history of America that is likely to become a classic of multicultural studies” and named it one of the ten best books of the year. Now Rebecca Stefoff, who adapted Howard Zinn’s best-selling A People’s History of the United States for younger readers, turns the updated 2008 edition of Takaki’s multicultural masterwork into A Different Mirror for Young People.In the beginning, there was only one version of American history - the one that began with the 'discovery' of North America by Europeans, particularly the English, who created a beachhead of 'civilization' on the East coast and then conquered a series of 'frontiers' moving westward until they 'won' and became God's gift to humanity, creating a country which is like a city built on a hill shedding light and progress everywhere else on earth. Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools and codirector, Zinn Education ProjectĪ longtime professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Ronald Takaki was recognized as one of the foremost scholars of American ethnic history and diversity. This young people’s version of A Different Mirror will introduce a new generation to Takaki’s pathbreaking scholarship. Takaki shows what has torn us apart, yet what knits us together. In the most profound sense, this is a people’s history of our country. The ‘mirror’ that Ronald Takaki holds up to the United States reflects a multicultural history of oppression and exploitation, but also struggle, solidarity, and community.

Takaki ronald a different mirror a history of multicultural america