Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Books, History, Media Archive, Monographs, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2017-06-29 19:39Z by Steven

Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War

Potomac Books (an imprint of University of Nebraska Press)
April 2005
336 pages
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-57488-864-5
Papberback ISBN: 978-1-57488-865-2

Trin Yarborough

Surviving Twice is the story of five Vietnamese Amerasians born during the Vietnam War to American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers. Unfortunately, they were not among the few thousand Amerasian children who came to the United States before the war’s end and grew up as Americans, speaking English and attending American schools. Instead, this group of Amerasians faced much more formidable obstacles, both in Vietnam and in their new home. Surviving Twice raises significant questions about how mixed-race children born of wars and occupations are treated and the ways in which the shifting laws, policies, social attitudes, and bureaucratic red tape of two nations affect them their entire lives.

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Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity

Posted in Barack Obama, Books, Media Archive, Monographs, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2012-09-27 17:35Z by Steven

Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity

Potomac Books
July 2012
270 pages
6″ x 9″; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Clothbound ISBN: 978-1-61234-472-0

Ian Reifowitz, Associate Professor of History
Empire State College of the State University of New York

What it means to be an American today

Our national identity is defined by what it means to be an American and whom we include and why when we talk about “the American people.” A country’s national identity is fluid, and Ian Reifowitz argues that President Barack Obama, by emphasizing the ideals Americans hold dear, hopes to redefine ours in a fundamental way. Obama’s conception of America emphasizes two principles of national unity: First, all Americans, regardless of their heritage and cultural traditions, should identify with America as their country, based upon shared democratic values, a shared history, and a shared fate. Second, America should embrace all its citizens as active participants in one “family.” Reifowitz explores Obama’s belief that strengthening our common bonds will encourage Americans to rectify the injustices and heal the racial divisions that still plague our country.

We have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that a society of many races and cultures can truly become one people. In facing terrorism, violent fundamentalism, and other security issues, Obama’s response centers on a powerful, inspiring, and truly inclusive American narrative. By bolstering America’s identity as diverse yet unified, he aims both to counter the anxieties and fears that radicalism stokes and give proponents of religious and political freedom a model they can defend. The stakes couldn’t be any higher in determining America’s future.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword by Ellis Cose
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. American National Identity: From the Revolution through the 1960s
  • 2. Since the 1960s: Radical Multiculturalism, Its Critics, and How Obama Fits In
  • 3. Obama’s Search for His Own Identity
  • 4. Obama on Racial Discrimination: Causes, Effects, and Policies to Combat It
  • 5. Candidate and President Obama’s Broader Rhetoric on Race
  • 6. Obama’s Vision of National Identity and National Unity
  • 7. Obama’s Narrative of American History and Our Place in the World
  • 8. Rejecting Obama’s America: Right-Wing Exclusionists and Left-Wing Race Critics
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index
  • About the Author
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The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues

Posted in Books, History, Media Archive, Monographs, Passing, United States, Women on 2011-10-18 22:14Z by Steven

The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues

Potomac Books, Inc.
March 2011
256 pages
6″ x 9″; 26 B&W Images; Notes; Suggested Reading; Appendix; Index
Cloth ISBN: 978-1-59797-546-9

Bob Luke

Never one to mince words, Effa Manley once wrote a letter to sportswriter Art Carter, saying that she hoped they could meet soon because “I would like to tell you a lot of things you should know about baseball.”

From 1936 to 1948, Manley ran the Negro league Newark Eagles that her husband, Abe, owned for roughly a decade. Because of her business acumen, commitment to her players, and larger-than-life personality, she would leave an indelible mark not only on baseball but also on American history.

Attending her first owners’ meeting in 1937, Manley delivered an unflattering assessment of the league, prompting Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee to tell Abe, “Keep your wife at home.” Abe, however, was not convinced, nor was Manley deterred. Like Greenlee, some players thought her too aggressive and inflexible. Others adored her. Regardless of their opinions, she dedicated herself to empowering them on and off the field. She meted out discipline, advice, and support in the form of raises, loans, job recommendations, and Christmas packages, and she even knocked heads with Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, and Jackie Robinson.

Not only a story of Manley’s influence on the baseball world, The Most Famous Woman in Baseball vividly documents her social activism. Her life played out against the backdrop of the Jim Crow years, when discrimination forced most of Newark’s blacks to live in the Third Ward, where prostitution flourished, housing was among the nation’s worst, and only menial jobs were available. Manley and the Eagles gave African Americans a haven, Ruppert Stadium. She also proposed reforms at the Negro leagues’ team owners’ meetings, marched on picket lines, sponsored charity balls and benefit games, and collected money for the NAACP.

With vision, beauty, intelligence, discipline, and an acerbic wit, Manley was a force of nature—and, as Bob Luke shows, one to be reckoned with.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • 1. The Lady Makes a Splash
  • 2. The Manleys Come to Baseball
  • 3. Abe Trades Brooklyn for Newark
  • 4. Effa Steps Up
  • 5. Effa Comes Into Her Own
  • 6. Fireworks
  • 7. Cobbling Together a Lineup
  • 8. War Comes to Newark
  • 9. The Eagles Adapt to the War
  • 10. Branch Rickey Drops the Color Bar
  • 11. A Reunited Team
  • 12. Striving for Respectability
  • 13. Effa’s Life After the Eagles
  • Epilogue
  • Appendix
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
  • Suggested Readings
  • About the Author
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