A Larger Memory: A History of Our Diversity, with Voices

by Ronald Takaki

Book Overview

A Larger Memory emerges from eighteenth-century archives and yesterday's headlines -- a sweeping yet intimate history of the diverse individuals who, together, make up America. Ronald Takaki uses letters, diaries, and oral histories to share their stories. Workers, immigrants, shopkeepers, women, children, and others, their lives often separated by ethnic borders, "speak" side by side as Takaki frames their voices with his own text.Among them, the young slave Frederick Douglass learns to read; a fifteen-year-old Irish-American girl speaks at a labor rally; a Native American performs as an "Indian" in a Wild West show; a Japanese American fights heroically in World War II; an illegal Mexican immigrant renounces her artistic dreams to provide a future for her son; affirmative action helps a black youth obtain a university education and escape from the inner city. Takaki skillfully weaves these voices and others to create a dynamic conversation about the diverse nature of the American experience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316311626
• ISBN13: 9780316311625
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great

This product was in the condition it said it would be and was sent in a very timely manner. Thank you so much!

Just a response to another review.

One of the reviews below claimed that there was a theme of "white man is evil" in the book, and I really have to disagree with that. Although it's easy for alternative histories to often fall into that theme, Takaki does well to seperate himself from that pitfall. Rather than replacing WASP history with equally exclusive anti-WASP history, his goal is to incorporate and acknowledge EVERYONE involved in the history of America. I personally think that his explanations of what "a larger memory" truly means are excellent. In addition to all of that, hearing history through the actual voices of people involved was a great idea that I'm sorry to say I haven't ever run into before (although I admit my exposure is somewhat limited). Overall, I'd recommend this book simply for its vision, if nothing else.

GREAT!

This is an excellent book. Seeing the American experience through the eyes of different cultures was a very eye opening experience. This is an excellent cultural education. The prejudice experienced by new immigrants and those of us who will always "look" different--non-white, can be experienced by everyone to take the narrow out of our mindedness.

The Book to read on Race in America

Mr Takaki does an excellent job on giving a variety of ethnic group's experience in America using their own words and personal trials.

Excellent

Excellent how Mr. Takaki shows the struggles of different races in America using their own words