Iron Cages Race and Culture in 19th-Century America

by Takaki, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9780195137378
• ISBN10: 019513737X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now in a new edition, Iron Cages provides a unique comparative analysis of white American attitudes toward Asians, blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans in the 19th century. This pathbreaking work offers a cohesive study of the foundations of race and culture in America. In a new epilogue,Takaki argues that the social health of the United States rests largely on the ability of Americans of all races and cultures to build on an established and positive legacy of cross-cultural cooperation and understanding in the coming 21st century. Observing that by 2050 all Americans will beminorities, Takaki urges us to ask ourselves: Will America fulfill the promise of equality or will America retreat into its "iron cages" and resist diversity, allowing racial conflicts to divide and possibly even destroy America as a nation? Incisive and provocative, Iron Cages is an essentialresource for students of ethnic history and important reading for anyone interested in the history of race relations in America.

Table of Contents

ONE REPUBLICANISM	1	(67)
The ``Iron Cage'' in the New Nation	3	(13)
The Birth of a Virtuous People	5	(6)
Race and Republican Society	11	(5)
``Diseases'' of the Mind and Skin	16	(20)
``Republican Machines''	17	(11)
The ``Lovely White''	28	(8)
Within the ``Bowels'' of the Republic	36	(31)
Head over Heart	37	(5)
Black Colonization	42	(13)
Red Lockeans	55	(12)
TWO ENTERPRISE	67	(78)
Beyond Primitive Accumulation	69	(11)
Democracy in America: The Inner World of the Bourgeoisie	70	(5)
The Market Revolution and Race	75	(5)
The Metaphysics of Civilization: ``The Red Race on Our Borders''	80	(28)
An Age of Confidence	81	(3)
Jibbenainosay: Indian-Hating in Fantasy	84	(8)
Jackson: Metaphysician of Indian-Hating	92	(16)
The Metaphysics of Civilization: ``The Black Race Within Our Bosom''	108	(37)
The Black Child/Savage: A Jacksonian Persuasion	109	(19)
``Warranteeism'': A Vision of a ``Marx of the Master Class''	128	(8)
Aesculapius Was a White Man: Race and the Cult of True Womanhood	136	(9)
THREE TECHNOLOGY	145	(106)
An American Prospero in King Arthur's Court	147	(24)
The New Body	148	(6)
White Technology: Anglo Over Mexican	154	(10)
The Triumph of Mind in America	164	(7)
The Iron Horse in the West	171	(23)
``Red Gifts'' and ``White Gifts'': The World Custer Lost	175	(6)
The Scientific Management of Indians	181	(13)
Civilization in the ``New South''	194	(21)
Machines and Magnolias: Black Labor in an Industrial Order	195	(10)
The ``Negro Question'': ``Higher Life'' in the South	205	(10)
The ``Heathen Chinee'' and American Technology	215	(36)
Ah Sin in America	216	(13)
A Yellow Proletariat: Caste and Class in Industrial America	229	(11)
A Vision of Catastrophe: Henry George and the American Tower of Babel	240	(11)
FOUR EMPIRE	251	(40)
The Masculine Thrust Toward Asia	253	(27)
The ``Iron Cage'' in a Corporate Civilization	254	(12)
The New Empire: American Asceticism and the ``New Navy''	266	(14)
Down From the Gardens of Asia	280	(11)
Epilogue	291	(14)
Notes	305	(44)
Bibliography	349	(18)
Index	367