Sociology 140, Fall 2006

Racial and Ethnic Relations

Recommended Books

Dr. Gary R. Lemons
gary.lemons@sccmail.maricopa.edu

Recommended books for Sociology 140:

NATIVE AMERICANS, AMERICAN INDIANS

Brown, Dee.  (1972) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.  New York:  Bantam. 
  An American Indian viewpoint of past Native American-white interrelations, offering a valuable corrective to traditional historical coverage.  Focuses on what the author calls the "incredible era of violence, greed, audacity, sentimentality, and undirected exuberance" toward Indians from 1860 to 1890.  

Deloria, Vine Jr. (1969) Custer Died for Your Sins:  An Indian Manifesto.  New York:  Avon
Non-fiction classic from one of the best Indian writers.

Mathiessen, Peter.  (1983)  In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.  New York:  Viking Press.  Following a concise summary of the Sioux experience in the face of Western settlers, Mathiessen summarizes the confrontations beginning with the 1973 Wounded Knee Battle through the imprisonment of AIM leaders in the early 1980s. 

AFRICAN AMERICANS, BLACK AMERICANS
 
Griffin, John Howard (1960) Black Like Me.  Fascinating account of a white journalist who takes     a drug that changes his skin from white to black and travels in the South.

Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton.   (1993) American Apartheid:  Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.  Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press.  In the view of the authors, the persistence of the ghetto is no accident, and is a significant factor in perpetuating poverty among African Americans.  Academically challenging. 

McBride, James.  (1996) The Color of Water:  A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.  
Simply put, a wonderful book.  An autobiographical account about an African-American boy who wonders why his mother is so “light” and different from the other kids mothers in Harlem.   He finds out that she is actually white and from an orthodox Jewish family.   “Complex and moving…suffused with issues of race, religion, and identity.”   Lots of humor and pain.  

Suskind, Ron.  (1999)  A Hope in the Unseen.  The true story of a young African American high school student who has the goal of going to an Ivy League School.  He gets accepted to Brown University and “discovers he has little in common either the white students, many of whom come from privileged backgrounds, or the middle class blacks. “

X, Malcolm with the assistance of Alex Haley.  (1964) The Autobiography of Malcolm X New York:  Grove.I believe that a college education is not complete without reading this classic.  I highly recommend this extremely readable book.

AMERICANS OF MEXICAN ANCESTRY and LATINOS

Rodriguez, Luis J.  (1993)  Always Running:  La Vida Loca:  Gang Days in L. A.  New York: 
Simon & Schuster.  I liked this book a lot and found it hard to put down.  Here is what Gary Soto, a renowned Chicano author, wrote about this fascinating book:  "Rodriguez's account of his coming of age is vivid, raw. . . fierce, and fearless. . . .Here's truth not television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer."

Rodriguez, Richard (1982) Hunger of Memory  Boston:  Godine.  In this autobiography, 
questions the advisability of bilingual education, arguing for no delays to assimilation.  His conservative stance is a vivid contrast to the writing of most Chicanos.  Somewhat assimilationist in tone, this is a popular book for some of my students.  Well worth reading.

ASIAN AMERICANS:

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club (1990). I have not yet read this book, but I am pretty sure it fits our class really well. It is about four Chinese American women who meet together and talk. It follows their daughters as well thus illustrating the generational effect that is discussed in our class. I'll update this section after I read it.

HOLOCAUST:
 
Wiesel, Elie.  Night.  (1960)  This book is excellent and very popular with students.  It is short, easy to read, and very powerful.  “A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness the death of his family…and the death of his God.  Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary of Anne Frank, Night awakens the Shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.