
Assimilation
An Alternative History
Catherine S. Ramirez(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 8. December 2020
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-520-30069-9 (ISBN)
Description
For over a hundred years, the story of assimilation has animated the nation-building project of the United States. And still today, the dream or demand of a cultural "melting pot" circulates through academia, policy institutions, and mainstream media outlets. Noting society's many exclusions and erasures, scholars in the second half of the twentieth century persuasively argued that only some social groups assimilate. Others, they pointed out, are subject to racialization.
In this bold, discipline-traversing cultural history, Catherine Ramirez develops an entirely different account of assimilation. Weaving together the legacies of US settler colonialism, slavery, and border control, Ramirez challenges the assumption that racialization and assimilation are separate and incompatible processes. In fascinating chapters with subjects that range from nineteenth century boarding schools to the contemporary artwork of undocumented immigrants, this book decouples immigration and assimilation and probes the gap between assimilation and citizenship. It shows that assimilation is not just a process of absorption and becoming more alike. Rather, assimilation is a process of racialization and subordination and of power and inequality.
In this bold, discipline-traversing cultural history, Catherine Ramirez develops an entirely different account of assimilation. Weaving together the legacies of US settler colonialism, slavery, and border control, Ramirez challenges the assumption that racialization and assimilation are separate and incompatible processes. In fascinating chapters with subjects that range from nineteenth century boarding schools to the contemporary artwork of undocumented immigrants, this book decouples immigration and assimilation and probes the gap between assimilation and citizenship. It shows that assimilation is not just a process of absorption and becoming more alike. Rather, assimilation is a process of racialization and subordination and of power and inequality.
Reviews / Votes
"Provocative and well researched. By disassociating assimilation from immigration, Ramirez expands the reader's understanding of assimilation." * New Mexico Historical Review *More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
10 b-w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-30069-9 (9780520300699)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
12/2020
1st Edition
University of California Press
€29.71
Article not available at the moment

E-Book
12/2020
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€27.49
Available for download
Person
Catherine S. Ramirez is Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz. She is the former director of the Research Center for the Americas at UC Santa Cruz and the author of The Woman in the Zoot Suit.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. The Paradox of Assimilation
2. Indians and Negroes in Spite of Themselves: Puerto Rican Students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
3. Demography Is Destiny: Negroes, New Immigrants, and the Threat of Permanence
4. The Moral Economy of Deservingness, from the Model Minority to the Dreamer
5. Impossible Subjects: Dissident Dreamers, Undocuqueers, and Oaxacalifornixs
Epilogue: Notes from the Interregnum
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
1. The Paradox of Assimilation
2. Indians and Negroes in Spite of Themselves: Puerto Rican Students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
3. Demography Is Destiny: Negroes, New Immigrants, and the Threat of Permanence
4. The Moral Economy of Deservingness, from the Model Minority to the Dreamer
5. Impossible Subjects: Dissident Dreamers, Undocuqueers, and Oaxacalifornixs
Epilogue: Notes from the Interregnum
Notes
Bibliography
Index