Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: A Historical Community Overview is rooted in the tenets and methodologies of Ethnic Studies and its commitment to community-based research and activism. It is a great introductory resource for Asian American Studies (AAS) and provides an overview of the history of Asian Americans in the U.S. as well as a history of empire to consider the experiences of Pacific Islanders. Exploring ethnic groups often marginalized within Asian American Studies, this textbook provides insight into Samoan, Fijian, and Hmong communities for example. It also explores the relationship between the past and the present and how Asian American Studies is important to understanding race and ethnicity today.
Asian American Studies was created by two Third World Liberation Front student strikes at San Francisco State College (November 1968-March 1969), and at the University of California, Berkeley (January 1969-March 1969). These strikes laid the foundation for other universities and colleges to establish their own respective AAS programs and departments. For instance, in fall of 1970, the Sacramento State University (Sac State) Ethnic Studies Center was created. Within a short time, throughout the United States, Asian American Studies courses, programs, and departments were formed, and consequently, so did students interests and activism. By the 1970s, new relevant research and books increasing became in demand to meet the challenges of a continually evolving and developing Asian American Studies such as the increasingly diverse Southeast Asian population, the growth of Pacific Islander studies, especially in the study of Native Hawaiian history, Asia Diaspora, and the evolution of Asian American and Pacific Islander community studies. This anthology addresses these and other challenges.
