Pacific Rim in American History

This course is a comparative study of Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian settlement in the United States. It begins in the 1700s when Filipino seamen first settled in what is now Louisiana and Texas and concludes with the end of World War II. Attention will be given to immigration from Asia and its relationship to the development of the capitalist world system, the role that Asian American labor played in class and racial formation in America the political economies of Asian American communities, and the various social movements and legislative efforts to exclude Asians from American society and Asian resistance to exclusion.