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Asian Pacific American Heritage : Read

MC Library's guide for Asian Pacific American heritage

Non-Fiction

25 Events That Shaped Asian American History

25 Events That Shaped Asian American History

This book provides detailed and engaging narratives about 25 pivotal events in Asian American history, celebrates Asian Americans' contributions to U.S. history, and examines the ways their experiences have shaped American culture. Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American history, society, and culture. This book presents key events in the Asian American experience through 25 well-developed, accessible essays; detailed timelines; biographies of notable figures; excerpts of primary source documents; and sidebars and images that provide narrative and visual information on high-interest topics. Arranged chronologically, the 25 essays showcase the ways in which Asian Americans have contributed to U.S. history and culture and bear witness to their struggles, activism, and accomplishments. The book offers a unique look at the Asian American experience, from the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century to the 2017 travel ban. Highlighting events with national and international significance, such as the Central Pacific Railroad Construction, the Korean War, and 9/11, it documents the Asian American experience and demonstrates Asian Americans' impact on American life.

Life Narratives & Identity

Lost Kingdom

Lost Kingdom

Around 200 A.D., intrepid Polynesians arrived at an undisturbed archipelago. For centuries, their descendants lived with little contact from the Western world. In 1778, their isolation was shattered with the arrival of Captain Cook. Deftly weaving together a memorable cast of characters, Lost Kingdom brings to life the ensuing clash between a vulnerable Polynesian people and relentlessly expanding capitalist powers. Portraits of royalty and rogues, sugar barons, and missionaries combine into a sweeping tale of the Hawaiian Kingdom's rise and fall. At the center of the story is Lili'uokalani, the last queen of Hawai'i. Born in 1838, she lived through the nearly complete economic transformation of the islands. Lucrative sugar plantations gradually subsumed the majority of the land, owned almost exclusively by white planters, dubbed the "Sugar Kings." Hawai'i became a prize in the contest between America, Britain, and France, each seeking to expand their military and commercial influence in the Pacific. The monarchy had become a figurehead, victim to manipulation from the wealthy sugar plantation owners. Lili'uokalani was determined to enact a constitution to reinstate the monarchy's power but was outmaneuvered by the U.S. The annexation of Hawai'i had begun, ushering in a new century of American imperialism.

Fiction

The Bone People

The Bone People

In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes: part Maori, part European, asexual and aromantic, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor--a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon's feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity, Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where indigenous and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge. Winner of both a Booker Prize and Pegasus Prize for Literature, The Bone People is a work of unfettered wordplay and mesmerizing emotional complexity.

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More Events and Special Topics Guides

Want to learn more? View our other events and special topics guides:

MC Library Events and Special Topics Guides