A dramatic new retelling of our nation's past. Beginning with the colonization of the New World, it recounts the history of America in the voice of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States--Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others--groups who helped create this country's rich mosaic culture. Now, Ronald Takaki has revised his landmark work and made it even more relevant and important. Among the new additions to the book are: the role of black soldiers in preserving the Union; the history of Chinese Americans from 1900-1941; an investigation into the hot-button issue of "illegal" immigrants from Mexico; and a look at the sudden visibility of Muslim refugees from Afghanistan. This new edition grapples with the raw truth of American history and examines the ultimate question of what it means to be an American.-- From publisher.

First edition published in hardcover by Little, Brown, and Company, June 1993.

1. A different mirror : the making of multicultural America. pt. 1: Foundations -- Before Columbus: Vinland -- 2. The "tempest" in the wilderness : a tale of two frontiers -- Shakespeare's dream about America -- English over Irish -- English over Indian -- Virginia: to "root out" Indians as a people --New England: the "utter extirpation" of Indians -- Stolen lands: a world turned "upside down" -- 3. The hidden origins of slavery -- A view from the cabins: black and white together -- "English and Negroes in armes": Bacon's Rebellion -- "White over Black.". pt. 2: Contradictions -- The rise of the Cotton Kingdom -- 4. Towards "the stony mountains" : from removal to reservation -- Andrew Jackson: "To ... tread on the graves of extinct nations" -- The embittered human heart: The Choctaws -- "The trail of tears" : The Cherokees -- "American progress": "Civilization" over "savagery" -- 5. "No more peck o' corn" : slavery and its discontents -- "North of slavery" -- Was "Sambo" real? -- Frederick Douglass: son of his master -- Martin Delany: father of Black nationalism -- "Tell Linkum dat we wants land" -- 6. Fleeing "the tyrant's heel" : "exiles" from Ireland -- Behind the emigration: "John Bull must have the beef" -- An "immortal Irish brigade" of workers -- Irish "maids" and "factor girls" -- "Green Power": the Irish "ethnic" strategy -- 7. "Foreigners in their native land" : the war against Mexico -- "We must be conquerors or we are robbers" -- Anglo over Mexican -- 8. Searching for Gold Mountain : strangers from a different shore -- Pioneers from Asia -- Twice a minority: Chinese women in America -- A colony of "bachelors" -- A sudden change in fortune: the San Francisco earthquake -- "Caught in between": Chinese born in America. pt. 3: Transitions -- The end of the frontier: the emergence of an American empire -- 9. The "Indian question" : from reservation to reorganization -- The massacre at Wounded Knee -- Where the buffalo no longer roam -- Allotment and assimilation -- The Indian "New Deal": what kind of a "deal" was it? -- 10. Pacific crossings : from Japan to the land of "money trees" -- Picture brides in America -- Tears in the canefields -- Transforming California: from deserts to farms -- The Nisei: Americans by birth -- 11. The exodus from Russia : pushed by pogroms -- A Shtetl in America -- In the sweatshops: an army of garment workers -- Daughters of the Colony -- Up from "Greenhorns": crossing Delancey Street -- 12. El Norte : up from Mexico -- Sprinkling the fields with the sweat of their brows -- Tortillas and rotis: mixed marriages -- On the other side of the tracks -- The Barrio: a Mexican-American world -- 13. To "the land of hope" : Blacks in the urban North -- "The wind said North" -- The crucible of the city -- Black pride in Harlem -- "But a few pegs to fall": the Great Depression. pt. 4: Transformations -- The problem of the color lines -- 14. World War II : American dilemmas -- Japanese Americans: "a tremendous hole" in the Constitution -- African Americans: "bomb the color line" -- Chinese Americans: to "silence the distorted Japanese propaganda" -- Mexican Americans: up from the Barrio -- Native Americans: why fight the White Man's way? -- Jewish Americans: a "deafening silence" -- A holocaust called Hiroshima -- 15. Out of the war : clamors for change -- Rising winds for social justice -- Raisins in the sun: dreams deferred -- Asian Americans: a "model minority" for Blacks? -- 16. Again, the "tempest-tost" -- From a "teeming shore": Russia, Ireland, and China -- Dragon's teeth of fire: Vietnam -- Wars of terror: Afghanistan -- Beckoned North: Mexico -- 17. "We will all be minorities.".