Description
Book SynopsisExplores a discursive tradition that affiliates the East with modern efficiency, in contrast to more familiar primitivist forms of Orientalism. This book examines the relationship between Jack London and leading Progressive George Kennan on US-Japan relations, and Frank Norris and AFL leader Samuel Gompers on cheap immigrant labor.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2005 Cultural Studies Award, The Association for Asian American Studies Honorable Mention for the 2006 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2005 "Through a densely historicized, insightful reading of literary naturalism, Colleen Lye makes important contributions to understanding U.S. political, economic, and social history... This is an exemplary work of materialist study of literature and history that humbles most literary critics and historians."--Mari Yoshihara, Journal of American History
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: The Minority Which Is Not One 1 Chapter One: A Genealogy of the "Yellow Peril" 12 Jack London, George Kennan, and the Russo-Japanese War Chapter Two: Meat versus Rice 47 Frank Norris, Jack London, and the Critique of Monopoly Capitalism Chapter Three: The End of Asian Exclusion? 96 The Specter of "Cheap Farmers" and Alien Land Law Fiction Chapter Four: A New Deal for Asians 141 John Steinbeck, Carey McWilliams, and the Liberalism of Japanese-American Internment Chapter Five: One World 204 Pearl S. Buck, Edgar Snow, and John Steinbeck on Asian American Character Notes 255 Works Cited 301 Index 329
