| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Robert G. Lee. Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture. (Asian American History and Culture.) Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1999. Pp. xii, 271. $27.95.

Karl Marx has said that while people make their own history, they do not do so in a world of their own making. Robert G. Lee observes that this is particularly true for Asians in America who have had to contend with numerous stereotypes. Whether seen as the "Yellow Peril" or the "Model Minority," the representations of Asian Americans have affected their status in American society. Often viewed as racially different and alien, they are sometimes regarded as unassimilable and non-American. 1

Asians in the United States have hardly been unaware of the consequences of stereotypes. In fact, they have, through actions and court proceedings, challenged such representations and have sought inclusion as Americans. But popular stereotypes led to judicial decisions defining them as non-white and therefore ineligible for American citizenship. The Thind decision (1923) serves as an example. Bhagat Singh Thind was an Asian Indian who declared that he was a Caucasian and therefore could be naturalized for citizenship much like European immigrants. The Supreme Court, however, declared that although he was Caucasian, he did not fit the popular conception of who was white. . . .

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