A History of Multicultural America - A Different Mirror

This book should be required reading for high school, and college students. Unfortunately, I didn't read this book until I was in my 40's and I'm angry that I didn't read it when I was younger. Such a wonderful look at history from the side of minorities and women. Obviously not told by the white men that "wrote history". Can't say enough great things about this eye opening book.

Takaki's book should be required reading in classrooms across America. Too often people make their decisions based on the narrow view of our country's development found in the Eurocentric textbooks placed in schools today. This leaves out the wonder of historic variety contributed by the many different ethnicities and cultures that make up the real history of our country. His work is thoroughly researched and provides this broader view.

After reading this book in grad school (at the time I wasn't a huge pleasure reader), I recommended it to anyone who would listen. The way the author tells the stories from the flip-side (the oppressed), will blow your mind. Buy it, read it, love it, thank me later.

There is some good history here. There are multiple accounts given of events and sides to stories that you may not have heard. This really does help to establish a more rounded history of our country.

Sorry, the store--I had to buy another copy because the used one I got from the store was missing chapters---looked like a publishing error, because nothing was ripped out. Anyway, the text is fabulous and needs to be included in every U.S. History class! I am reading it for a Cross- Cultural Studies requirement for my AA. I wish all textbooks were this fun to read.

This book gives the full story why and how certain groups were treated in other countries that caused them to immigrate to the U.S., how the Indians were treated by the early white settlers, and the U.S. government until the current day, and the reasons for and results of ongoing discrimination and class distinction.

Covers in detail the history of ethnic groups and their involvement in the development of what we now call the United States. Used as a text book at UCLA (believe that is correct). Highly recommend it.

I originally bought this book for my Humanities 121 class about cultural divercity. I was not prepared to like it since it was for school but I am going to keep this book for my own library. I would recommend this book for anyone who is in school or not.

this book was required reading for my daughter's college major - International Development and Social Change and my graduate Multicultural Perspectives class. Explained how American attitudes on race and class came to exist.

I purchased this book for a class and was dreading reading it but it is a great and fascinating book. The seller gave an accurate description of its condition and I received much faster than I had anticipated.

Publishers Weekly called this, "a brilliant revisionist history of America that is likely to become a classic of multicultural studies." I would totally agree if they would have only added the word "biased" to their list of adjectives. This book has a strong anti-Anglo bias from cover to cover. As a history text it offers an extremely limited scope. It is an historical account of how the racist Anglos persecuted all non-Anglos through American history.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be read. I never give out ***** without reason.
For non-Anglos this book should be read for the comfort it offers. At last someone has found the courage to tell the story of those who came from the margins of society. I am white. My heritage traces predominantly from Native American (Cherokee) and Irish indentured servitude stock. The book was informative concerning my heritage.
For Anglos this book should be read to help remove cultural blinders. Such a book can be threatening, but it has the potential to expand our universes way beyond the scope of monocultural prejudice. Books such as this help us to better understand where our brothers and sisters of other cultures are coming from.
FOR EVERYONE, this book should be read to understand the past, NOT keep alive prejudice for another generation. My prayer is that a day will come when we have the ability to scale the walls of blindness and forgive the offenses of the past. I would like to see a new world when we are neither ruled by bigotry or guilt.

This book has some great stories and incorporates necessary pieces of history. That being said, the chapters are a little scattered and long. Many of the points Takaki wants to prove could be done so in much less print.