Korean American Books

Summaries and reviews of fiction and nonfiction books by Korean American authors,
books about Korean Americans and Korea, and Korean literature in English translation,
including some academic works and a sampling on the Korean War

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Korean Americans, by Brian Lehrer (The Immigrant Experience series)

A middle-grade book that appears to be part of a series on the immigrant experience. What strikes me foremost is that it was published in 1988, four years before Sa-i-gu, the Los Angeles race riots, which was a benchmark for change in Korean American and American relations. And so, in that light, it's interesting to see how this book both attempts to delineate the particularities of the Korean American experience while simultaneously reinforcing burgeoning stereotypes of the KA culture. The photographs and brief modern Korean history up until the repeal of the Oriental Exclusion Act are interesting. A good “history in it’s time” brief reading.

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