Ronald Takaki

Ronald Takaki's "brilliant revisionist history of America" (Publishers Weekly) is a landmark work of American history retells American history from the bottom up, through the lives of many minorities - Native Americans, African Americans, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and others - who helped create this country's mighty economy and rich mosaic culture. A Different Mirror brilliantly illuminates our country's defining strengths as it reveals America as a nation peopled by the world.

A longtime professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Ronald Takaki wasrecognized as one of the foremost scholars of American ethnic history and diversity. When the first edition of"A""Different Mirror"was published in 1993, "Publishers Weekly"called it "a brilliant revisionist history of Americathat 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"foryounger readers, turns the updated 2008 edition of Takaki's multicultural masterwork into"A Different Mirror for""Young People." Drawing on Takaki's vast array of primary sources, and staying true to his own words whenever possible, "A""Different Mirror for Young People"brings ethnic history alive through the words of people, including teenagers, who recorded their experiences in letters, diaries, and poems. Like Zinn's"A People's History," Takaki's"A""Different Mirror"offers a rich and rewarding "people's view" perspective on the American story."

A powerful multicultural history of Americans in World War II, from the acclaimed author of A Different Mirror. A history of America in World War II is told through the lives of an ethnically diverse group of ordinary Americans struggling for equality at home and fighting for freedom overseas. Takaki's revealing book shows that there were more struggles -- and more victories -- during WWII than most people ever imagined.

A sweeping yet intimate history of the diverse individuals who, together, make up America. Ronald Takaki uses letters, diaries & oral histories to share their stories. Workers, immigrants, shopkeepers, women, children & others, their lives often separated by ethnic borders, speak side by side as Takaki frames their voices with his own text.

testimonies from women transformed

A powerful and moving history of Asian Americans that spans centuries, from the acclaimed author of A Different Mirror. In an extraordinary blend of narrative history, personal recollection, and oral testimony, the author presents a sweeping history of Asian Americans. He writes of the Chinese who laid tracks for the transcontinental railroad, of plantation laborers in the canefields of Hawaii, of "picture brides" marrying strangers in the hope of becoming part of the American dream. He tells stories of Japanese Americans behind the barbed wire of U.S. internment camps during World War II, Hmong refugees tragically unable to adjust to Wisconsin's alien climate and culture, and Asian American students stigmatized by the stereotype of the "model minority." This is a powerful and moving work that will resonate for all Americans, who together make up a nation of immigrants from other shores.

The bombing of Hiroshima was one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century, yet this controversial question remains unresolved. At the time, General Dwight Eisenhower, General Douglas MacArthur, and chief of staff Admiral William Leahy all agreed that an atomic attack on Japanese cities was unnecessary. All of them believed that Japan had already been beaten and that the war would soon end. Was the bomb dropped to end the war more quickly? Or did it herald the start of the Cold War? In his probing new study, prizewinning historian Ronald Takaki explores these factors and more. He considers the cultural context of race - the ways in which stereotypes of the Japanese influenced public opinion and policymakers - and also probes the human dimension. Relying on top secret military reports, diaries, and personal letters, Takaki relates international policies to the individuals involved: Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, Secretary of State James Byrnes, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and others... but above all, Harry Truman.