Description
The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese confrontation, on the Pacific Coast, as it was experienced and rationalized by the white majority. For reasons which will be evident in what follows, the main body of the work (chapters 3 through 11) will focus on the Democratic party and the labor movement of California through the forty-year period after the Civil War. The two opening chapters turn back to explore aspects of the Jacksonian background which appear crucial to an understanding of what occurred in California. The final chapter looks beyond the turn of the century to trace certain results of the sequence of events in the West for the labor movement as a whole, and to suggest the influence of those events upon the crystallization of an American concept of national identity.
About the Author
Alexander Saxton is Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Los Angeles.
Reviews
"Covering the latter part of the 19th century, from the beginning of California's labor disorders to the re-enforcement of America's racist immigration acts, The Indispensable Enemy gives important background to America's prejudice toward Asians. . . . The Indispensable Enemy is essential reading for students of Asian America." * Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars *
"The Indispensable Enemy will provide an essential source for information and insight into this subject. Like others of this genre, it is a serious work that deals intensively with the themes suggested in the title. It provides not only the broad overview, but a stimulating study of the subtleties, complexities, and revealing nuances of the inter-relationships between the anti-Chinese movement and California's organized labor movement." * American Historical Review *
"Alexander Saxton's work deserves widespread attention for its valuable contribution to our understanding of Chinese immigration as a crucial issue in the development of organized labor in California during the last third of the nineteenth century. With a fine hand the author traces the role of the "yellow specter" in the training of labor leaders, in the in-fighting and factional disputes during those decades, and in the development of the sectional nature of organized labor on the West Coast as "a regional labor center."" * Pacific Historical Review *
"This study brings out in detail the complex of sentiments, ideas, programs, organizations, and personalities covering several decades. There are interesting analyses of key figures such as Henry George, Denis Kearney, Frank Roney, Burnette Haskell, Sigismund Danielewicz, and others. The California story is placed within the context of the larger national situation of labor and ethnic relations and their interactions, thus adding to its interest and value." * Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science *
Book Information
ISBN 9780520029057
Author Alexander Saxton
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 318g
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 20mm
About the Author
Alexander Saxton is Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Los Angeles.
Reviews
"Covering the latter part of the 19th century, from the beginning of California's labor disorders to the re-enforcement of America's racist immigration acts, The Indispensable Enemy gives important background to America's prejudice toward Asians. . . . The Indispensable Enemy is essential reading for students of Asian America." * Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars *
"The Indispensable Enemy will provide an essential source for information and insight into this subject. Like others of this genre, it is a serious work that deals intensively with the themes suggested in the title. It provides not only the broad overview, but a stimulating study of the subtleties, complexities, and revealing nuances of the inter-relationships between the anti-Chinese movement and California's organized labor movement." * American Historical Review *
"Alexander Saxton's work deserves widespread attention for its valuable contribution to our understanding of Chinese immigration as a crucial issue in the development of organized labor in California during the last third of the nineteenth century. With a fine hand the author traces the role of the "yellow specter" in the training of labor leaders, in the in-fighting and factional disputes during those decades, and in the development of the sectional nature of organized labor on the West Coast as "a regional labor center."" * Pacific Historical Review *
"This study brings out in detail the complex of sentiments, ideas, programs, organizations, and personalities covering several decades. There are interesting analyses of key figures such as Henry George, Denis Kearney, Frank Roney, Burnette Haskell, Sigismund Danielewicz, and others. The California story is placed within the context of the larger national situation of labor and ethnic relations and their interactions, thus adding to its interest and value." * Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science *
Book Information
ISBN 9780520029057
Author Alexander Saxton
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 318g
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 20mm
