Synopses & Reviews
Since the late nineteenth century, federal and state rules governing immigration and naturalization have placed persons of Asian ancestry outside the boundaries of formal membership. A review of leading cases in American constitutional law regarding Asians would suggest that initially, Asian immigrants tended to evade exclusionary laws through deliberate misrepresentations of their identities or through extralegal means. Eventually, many of these immigrants and their descendants came to accept prevailing legal norms governing their citizenship in the United States. In many cases, this involved embracing notions of white supremacy.
John S. W. Park argues that American rules governing citizenship and belonging remain fundamentally unjust, even though they suggest the triumph of a "civil rights" vision, where all citizens share the same basic rights. By continuing to privilege members over non-members in ways that are politically popular, these rules mask injustices that violate principles of fairness. Importantly, Elusive Citizenship also suggests that politically and socially, full membership in American society remains closely linked with participation in exclusionary practices that isolate racial minorities in America.
Review
"Lucid and compelling, Park's book is essential reading for those who want to understand the limits of American civil rights discourse-and post-September 11, that should be all of us."-Angela Harris,Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
Review
"Park rigorously and elegantly pursues a vexing socio-legal issue: Who belongs in America, and why does U.S. immigration law shape contradictory public responses to this question? Examining Asian immigrants who 'evaded, fought, and embraced American law' in the face of government treatment that was sometimes welcoming and most often hostile, Park generates deep insights into a conflictual legal regime that continues to foster treatment of present-day immigrants of color (post-Proposition 187 and September 11) simultaneously as economic contributors and social pariahs."-Eric Yamamoto,School of Law, University of Hawai'i
Review
"In many ways, this book is perfect... This is an important book that succeeds on its own terms and will be well used in immigration and legal history as well as Asian American studies."-Journal of Asian Studies,
Review
"Although he is a legal scholar, his book is more than academic. The issues that Park raises are at the heart of what it means to be a diverse democracy- or not." -Trial,
Review
"A well-executed interdisciplinary work combining the theoretical and the empirical in ways that benefit the understanding of both."-The Law and Politics Book Review,
Synopsis
In this witty and provocative study of sex and marriage manuals, M.E. Melody and Linda M. Peterson reveal that permissiveness, prohibition, and, tellingly, persuasion and enforcement-from sermons and hellfire to mutilation and electroshock-have informed popular sex education over the past hundred and twenty years.
From the late Victorian obsession with masturbation and hygiene, to the "if it feels good, do it" ethos of The Joy of Sex, America's disposition to sex has evolved from a general squeamishness to a veritable cult of mutual orgasm. But despite the recent emphasis on "voluptuous pleasure," the basic power dynamic underlying the discourse on sex has been remarkably resistant to change. The authors reveal that, even as sexual behavior changed during periods of upheaval, the prescriptive literature on sex has remained traditional at its core, promoting sex within marriage for the purpose of reproduction.
A cross-generational account of the major constructions of masculinity and femininity from 1880 to the present day, Teaching America About Sex serves up a lucid and entertaining reading of the twentieth century's vexed relationship with sex.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-274) and index.
About the Author
M.E. Melody is Professor of Political Science at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida.
Linda M. Peterson is Professor of Psychology and Coordinator of Women's Studies at Barry University.
Table of Contents
The late Victorians and the spermatic political economy / Henry Hanchett, John Harvey Kellogg, Henry Guernsey -- "No gods no masters": Margaret Sanger and America's sexual future / Margaret Sanger -- The 1920s and America's first sexual eruption / Joseph Collins ... et al. -- Sexual eruption and then reaction: the interwar years / Theodore van de Velde -- One step forward, two steps back: sex and pleasure in the 1950s / Hannah M. Stone and Abraham Stone, Eustace Chesser -- Sexual upheaval in the 1960s: counterculture, counter-sex / David Reuben -- Joy through peak experiences in the 1970s / Alex Comfort -- Does pleasure demand the conjunction of particular body parts? Gay and lesbian sex / Charles Silverstein ... et al. -- Another reaction: Dr. Ruth defends marriage / Ruth Westheimer -- On penetrative power.