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circularcubes's review
2.0
2.5 stars
Despite my interest in Asian American history and my personal experience working for a small Chinese American non-profit organization (shoutout to CHSNE!) I am not the target audience for this book. This book is for the serious academic (or their students) looking to write about the Asian American movement from the 1960s to the early 1990s, or to the community organizer looking to learn from the mistakes of the past. I was a bit overwhelmed by it, so this is definitely not for the faint-hearted casual reader (although, let's be honest, that reader probably wouldn't be tempted by this book to begin with).
I feel like I learned a lot from this, and I really enjoyed how the chapters were broken up! But this book was not easy to read through. It felt like an endless who's who of the many small Asian American organizations of those decades (acronyms ABOUND here) and all the personal and political in-fighting that led to the demise of most of these groups after a few years. Like I said, great stuff if you're looking for research about a particular organization or individual in the movement or the like, but not if you're more looking for something to read during your commute or your lunch break or on your tiny sofa after dinner.
Also, obviously, this is very outdated now (by three decades at the time of this review - that's about as much time as the book itself covers)! Side note - very weird to have been reading about early Filipino American activism coalescing around shared anti-Marcos sentiment when his son literally just got elected into office in the Philippines. The more things change, the more they stay the same?
Despite my interest in Asian American history and my personal experience working for a small Chinese American non-profit organization (shoutout to CHSNE!) I am not the target audience for this book. This book is for the serious academic (or their students) looking to write about the Asian American movement from the 1960s to the early 1990s, or to the community organizer looking to learn from the mistakes of the past. I was a bit overwhelmed by it, so this is definitely not for the faint-hearted casual reader (although, let's be honest, that reader probably wouldn't be tempted by this book to begin with).
I feel like I learned a lot from this, and I really enjoyed how the chapters were broken up! But this book was not easy to read through. It felt like an endless who's who of the many small Asian American organizations of those decades (acronyms ABOUND here) and all the personal and political in-fighting that led to the demise of most of these groups after a few years. Like I said, great stuff if you're looking for research about a particular organization or individual in the movement or the like, but not if you're more looking for something to read during your commute or your lunch break or on your tiny sofa after dinner.
Also, obviously, this is very outdated now (by three decades at the time of this review - that's about as much time as the book itself covers)! Side note - very weird to have been reading about early Filipino American activism coalescing around shared anti-Marcos sentiment when his son literally just got elected into office in the Philippines. The more things change, the more they stay the same?
catyzhang's review
I've heard that some Movement activists dislike this book and think it's inaccurate. That being said, as one of the only books on the Movement out there, it is useful read — at the very least, it gave me a list of organizations and campaigns to research further.
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