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This collection of essays explores the way race-ethnicity, class, gender, locale, historical background and sexuality interact in shaping the diversity of modern American family life. The essays are written by many of the most important scholars of our time. There are chapters about African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Filipinas, Vietnamese, Chinese, immigrants, lesbians, motherhood, the poor, teenage mothers, and class consciousness in various times and places. This is an academic book, but there is lots of inspiration for the teacher and excerpts will be usable at the top end of the gymnasium. Editor: Stephanie Coontz. (475 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Americans have been brought together by conquest, colonialism, the slave trade, territorial acquisition, and voluntary immigration. This book looks at immigration, anti-immigration sentiments, and the motivations and experiences of the migrants themselves. It begins by examining the many legal efforts to curb immigration and to define who is and is not an American, ranging from the Naturalization Law of 1795 to the reform-minded Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened the door to millions of newcomers, the vast majority from Asia and Latin America. The book also looks at immigration from the point of view of the farmers and industrial workers, mechanics and domestics, professionals and businessmen who willingly pulled up stakes for the chance of a better life. The book sheds light on the relationships between race and ethnicity in the life of these groups and in the formation of American society, and it stresses the marked continuities across the waves of immigration. Author: David A. Gerber. (176 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/Interdisciplinary projects etc.

Contents: Introduction. Section One The Law of Immigration and the Legal Construction of Citizenship: Chapter 1: Unregulated Immigration and Its Opponents: from Colonial America to the Mid-Nineteenth Century; Chapter 2: Regulation and Exclusion; Chapter 3: Reform in the Mid- Twentieth Century: Removing Barriers, Debating Consequences. Section Two Emigration and Immigration: From the International Migrants' Perspective: Chapter 4: Mass Population Movements and Resettlement, 1820-1924; Chapter 5: Mass Population Movements and Resettlement, 1970 to the Present: Continuity and Change. Section Three: The Dialogue of Ethnicity and Assimilation: Chapter 6: The Widening Mainstream; Chapter 7: The Future of Assimilation. Conclusion. Further Reading

American has 40 million citizens whose roots are in Mexico, Central or South America, the Caribbean or the Iberian Peninsula. This book is a collection of mainly short stories (but also poems, cartoons and quotations) about Latino life, community and beliefs in America. The stories are short, accessible and powerful. Themes include: the history of Latino immigrants whose sacrifice and hard work paved the way for new generations; the longing for a sense of connection to ancestral homelands; the Latino struggle for an “American” identity; the consequences of living in two languages; the inspiration drawn from Latino cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs; Latino faith in the power of community; the central place of family in Latino cultures. Editors: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Susan Sánchez-Casal. (340 pages)
Level: Can be used from the beginning of the gymnasium/Interdisciplinary projects about Hispanic immigrants and culture in the USA

Ten short stories, written for young adults, reflect the diversity of experience among teenagers from many countries who make the United States their new home. It's hard enough to be a teenager, trying to fit in and figure out how the world works. Being from a different culture makes everything that much harder. A frequent theme in these stories is the chronic irony of children shrugging off standards from their homeland while laden with guilt about not respecting the traditions that their parents cling to; they're caught in a conflict — assuming responsibility while still remaining subordinate. In Pam Muñoz Ryan's First Crossing a boy experiences the risks of being smuggled across the Mexican border. Marie G. Lee's The Rose of Sharon describes a spoiled girl's animosity toward her adoptive parents and her desire to return to Korea to find her birth family. In Jean Davies Okimoto's My Favorite Chaperone an immigrant from Kazakhstan describes her relationship with her conservative parents, who rely on her to translate for them but still limit her freedom. Lensey Namioka reflects on Chinese etiquette and David Lubar takes a comic look at a Transylvanian immigrant who finds unexpected friends among his school's vampire-obsessed Goths. Editor: Donald R Gallo. (240 pages)
Level: From the start of the Gymnasium

Told in a series of vignettes, The House On Mango Street is the story of Esperanza Cordera, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. For Esperanza, Mango Street is a desolate landscape of concrete and run-down tenements where she discovers the hard realities of life — the fetters of class and gender, racial enmity and the mysteries of sexuality. Capturing her thoughts and emotions in poems and stories, Esperanza is able to rise above hopelessness and create a quiet space for herself in the midst of her oppressive surroundings. This bestselling novel depicts a new American landscape through its multiple characters. Author: Sandra Cisneros. (110 pages)
Level: B

A great novel about immigration, exile, Hispanic culture and the American Dream ... and coming of age. Yolanda Garcia is taking a trip to the Dominican Republic to revisit the country where she was born, and which her family was forced to flee for New York when she was a child. Previously privileged and wealthy, the family finds it hard to adjust to immigrant life in the Bronx, particularly their tough old-world father, Papi. As they try to immerse themselves in the American way of life, Yolanda and her three sisters begin to rebel against Papi's traditions and values, each in their own way. But, however the girls may iron the curls from their hair and blend their Hispanic accents to fit in, they will always see the world through Dominican eyes. The sisters don't look like or act like their Yanqui counterparts (i.e. U.S. born whites who make fun of their accents). They must struggle to gain acceptance and tolerance in a sometimes  cruel and intolerant world. Now Yolanda needs to return one more time, to recover forgotten memories and remember that part of her she lost.  Author: Julia Alvarez (who grew up in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the United States in 1960). (290 pages)  Level: 2nd Year of Gymnasium/Kan læses i uddrag

This classic book, now in a completely revised edition, is a great resource for one of the most studied subjects in the gymnasium today:
This book combines vivid storiesof newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands with analysis of current demographic, economic, and political realities. Drawing on recent census data and other primary sources, the authors have infused the text with up-to-date information and a range of new vignettes and illustrations. It offers a superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States.  It looks at the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how immigrants integrate themselves into the American economy, and examine the lives of their children from adolescence to early adulthood. There are analyses of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation. This is a major portrait of the diversity of American life, its pressures, difficulties, repressions and possibilities, as seen through the eyes of those struggling for a place in the society. Authors: Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut. (460 pages)
Level: A-B/A great resource for projects (especially interdisciplinary) about American immigrants and their culture

Contents: 1. Nine Stories  2. Who They Are and Why They Come  3. Moving: Patterns of Immigrant Settlement and Spatial Mobility  4. Making It in America: Occupational and Economic Adaptation  5. From Immigrants to Ethnics: Identity, Citizenship, and Political Participation  6. A Foreign World: Immigration, Mental Health, and Acculturation  7. Learning the Ropes: Language and Education  8. Growing Up American: The New Second Generation  9. Religion: The Enduring Presence  Conclusion  Notes  References  Index

A specialized but fascinating resource abou the interaction between American immigrants and popular culture:
This is an account of the role immigrants have played as performers, entrepreneurs, and as the subjects of the mass culture industry in America. This book asks the questions:  How does a 'national' popular culture form and grow over time in a nation comprised of immigrants? How have immigrants used popular culture in America, and how has it used them? Through a series of case studies Immigration and American Popular Culture uncovers how specific trends in popular culture — such as portrayals of European immigrants as gangsters in 1930s cinema, the zoot suits of the 1940s, the influence of Jamaican Americans on rap in the 1970s, and cyberpunk and Asian American “zines” in the 1990s — have their roots in the nature of immigration in America. Immigration and American Popular Culture is a unique history of 20th century U.S. immigration with major insights in the field of popular culture. Immigration and cultural production have been completely intertwined in America and we cannot understand one without the other. Authors: Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick. (302 pages)Level: A-B/A resource for projects (especially interdisciplinary) about American immigrants and their culture

In the first decades of the twentieth century, virulent racism lingered from Reconstruction, and segregation increased. Hostility met the millions of new immigrants from Eastern and southern Europe, and immigration was restricted. Still, even in an inhospitable climate, blacks and other minority groups came to have key roles in popular culture, from ragtime and jazz to film and the Harlem Renaissance. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: John F. McClymer. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Race relations in the 1920s ranged from an epidemic of lynchings of African Americans, race riots, and the execution of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti to citizenship for American Indians but not for Mexican immigrants. As the 1930s unfolded, there was more discrimination of Latinos and a legal lynching in the Scottsboro Boys trial, and German Jewish children were refused refuge from Hitler's Germany. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Leslie V. Tischauser. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

The 1940s and 1950s were decades of far-reaching change and mobilization in the United States. White culture strove to make nonwhites invisible with segregation and discrimination as Southern blacks continued the Great Migration north and the government brought in Mexican labor via the Bracero Program to take up labor slack while U.S. troops were overseas. The rise of the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education (which struck down segregation in schools 1954) were some results. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas J. Davis. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Few decades in American history were as full of drama and historical significance as the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, a revolution in race relations occurred, seeing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, the American Indian Movement, and the Latino labour movement. The focus in the 1970s was on carrying out the reforms of the previous decade, with the resulting white backlash. This volume is a source to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas Upchurch. Hardback. (180 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

This compilation of short-short stories (under 1,500 words) contains both established Latino writers (Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Junot Díaz, Sandra Cisneros, Roberto Bolaño etc.) and emerging figures (Andrea Saenz, Daniel Alarcón, Alicita Rodriguez etc.). The stories vary from gritty realism to fantasy in a challenging mix.

In Julio Ortega’s Migrations, a Peruvian writer explores how immigrant speech and ethnic origins are a force of meaning that evolves beyond language. In Hair, by Hilma Contreras, a Caribbean pharmacist is driven mad by a young woman’s luxuriant tresses. In Andrea Saenz's Everyone's Abuelo Can't Have Ridden with Pancho Villa, the narrator's Grandma Jefa discredits the family legends while holding fast to her own: a dream about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. In Day ah Dallas mare toes Luna Calderon writes about Dia de Los Muertos or, as the social studies teacher in her story calls it, “Day Ah Dallas Mare Toes”. In Imagining Bisbee, Alicita Rodriguez recounts the making of a ghost town: Bisbee's inhabitants want to disappear. They use P.O. boxes and first names. They hide under straw mats and melt into the horizon. In Miss Clairol, Helena María Viramontes describes the makeup ritual of a mother: The only way Champ knows her mother's true hair color is by her roots, which, like death, inevitably rise to the truth.

Editors: Robert Shapard, James Thomas, Ray Gonzales and Luisa Valenzuela. Click on “Flere oplysninger” to see the Table of Contents. (336 pages)
Level: Gymnasiet

Are illegal immigrants criminals to be thrown out of the country or are they victims? Should there be an amnesty? Should they be allowed to have basic rights like education? These questions divide Americans. Editor: Noël Marino. (112 pages)
Level: Mainly Second and Third year Gymnasium

Contents: Introduction; Enforcing Existing Immigration Law Violates Rights of Illegal Immigrants (National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights); Existing Immigration Law Should Be Enforced (Alex Alexiev); Employer Sanctions for Hiring Illegal Immigrants Should Be Ended (Bill Ong Hing and David Bacon); Immigration Raids Are Justified Because Lawbreakers Are Criminals (William P. Hoar); Immigration Raids Turn Victims into Criminals and Violate Worker Rights (Danielle Maestretti); Immigration Raids Justify Counter Exploitation of Illegal Immigrants (Jamie Glazov); Illegal Immigrants Should Not Be Allowed Amnesty (Christopher M. Jaarda); Ethical Considerations Support Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants (David DeCosse); Earned Legalization Is Preferable to Enforcement by Deportation (Patricia Hatch and Katherine Fennelly); Illegal Alien Criminals Should Be Removed from the Country (Jessica Vaughan and James R. Edwards, Jr.); Illegal Immigrants Should Not Be Able to Get Driver’s Licenses (Numbers USA); Children of Illegal Aliens Should Go to College and Gain Legal Status (David Bennion); Children of Illegal Aliens Should Not Go to College and Gain Legal Status (Yeh Ling-Ling); Organizations to Contact; Bibliography; Index.

Sample Pages (PDF)