America's Banquet of Cultures Harnessing Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration in the Twenty-First Century

Subjects:

• Sociology » Race Relations
• Sociology » Sociology (General)
• Multicultural Studies » Multicultural Studies (General)

Reviews:

• Fernandez has eloquently critiqued America's obsession with race, color, and immigrant `dangers'....Fernandez valiantly demands that we genuinely cherish ethnic and cultural difference. All levels.
  —Choice
• ...informative and interesting.
  —Journal of American Ethnic History Summer 2001
• America's Banquet of Cultures breaks new and significant ground on ethnicity, race and immigration.
  —Cultural Survival
• ...a provocative blend of observation and policy suggestion....useful in teaching undergraduates, particularly for those instructors who like to use unconventional thinking and opinion to shake students free from the shackles of their everyday assumptions.
  —Contemporary Sociology

• Endorsement From Rex Nettleford
  Vice Chancellor
  University of the West Indies: The Americas of which the United States is but one, albeit an iconic part, continue to invite deep analysis, insightful commentary, and practical directions towards a future capable of coping creatively with the dilemma of difference. Ronald Fernandez's America's Banquet of Cultures is a timely contribution to the continuing discourse on ethnicity, race and the immigration that underlie the textured diversity which is already the hallmark of 21st century life on planet Earth. It is indeed an invaluable and welcome addition to the expanding literature in the still emerging field of Cultural Studies.
• Endorsement From Luis Nieves Falcón
  Director of the Center for Social Research
  University of Puerto Rico: America's Banquet of Cultures breaks new and significant ground on all three of Fernandez's principal emphases: ethnicity, race and immigration. He has again used the Presidential libraries to uncover a considerable amount of neglected or unanalyzed material. I was especially impressed with his overview of a hundred years of undocumented Mexican migration to the United States. He lets U.S. officials speak for themselves in a manner that underlines the hypocrisy and contradictions of Washington's attitudes toward Mexico and its migrants.

Table of Contents:

• Preface: Four All-Americans
• Immigrants, Serfs and Refugees: Who are They? Where Did They Come From?
• Old Blood, New Blood, Weak Blood: The Nature of U.S. Immigration Laws
• Empires and Serfs: Migrant Labor in the United States
• Refugees and Other Aliens
• What Shall We Do with Our America?
• How Is Society Possible?
• Changing Colors
• Ethnic Extremes
• Social Class and Social Conflict
• Where Do We Go From Here?
• Compare and Contrast: Great Britain, Israel, India, and the United States
• The Twenty-first Century
• Bibliography
• Index