This collection of essays explores the way race-ethnicity, class, gender, locale, historical background and sexuality interact in shaping the diversity of modern American family life. The essays are written by many of the most important scholars of our time. There are chapters about African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Filipinas, Vietnamese, Chinese, immigrants, lesbians, motherhood, the poor, teenage mothers, and class consciousness in various times and places. This is an academic book, but there is lots of inspiration for the teacher and excerpts will be usable at the top end of the gymnasium. Editor: Stephanie Coontz. (475 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

American has 40 million citizens whose roots are in Mexico, Central or South America, the Caribbean or the Iberian Peninsula. This book is a collection of mainly short stories (but also poems, cartoons and quotations) about Latino life, community and beliefs in America. The stories are short, accessible and powerful. Themes include: the history of Latino immigrants whose sacrifice and hard work paved the way for new generations; the longing for a sense of connection to ancestral homelands; the Latino struggle for an “American” identity; the consequences of living in two languages; the inspiration drawn from Latino cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs; Latino faith in the power of community; the central place of family in Latino cultures. Editors: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Susan Sánchez-Casal. (340 pages)
Level: Can be used from the beginning of the gymnasium/Interdisciplinary projects about Hispanic immigrants and culture in the USA

Told in a series of vignettes, The House On Mango Street is the story of Esperanza Cordera, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. For Esperanza, Mango Street is a desolate landscape of concrete and run-down tenements where she discovers the hard realities of life — the fetters of class and gender, racial enmity and the mysteries of sexuality. Capturing her thoughts and emotions in poems and stories, Esperanza is able to rise above hopelessness and create a quiet space for herself in the midst of her oppressive surroundings. This bestselling novel depicts a new American landscape through its multiple characters. Author: Sandra Cisneros. (110 pages)
Level: B

This classic book, now in a completely revised edition, is a great resource for one of the most studied subjects in the gymnasium today:
This book combines vivid storiesof newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands with analysis of current demographic, economic, and political realities. Drawing on recent census data and other primary sources, the authors have infused the text with up-to-date information and a range of new vignettes and illustrations. It offers a superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States.  It looks at the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how immigrants integrate themselves into the American economy, and examine the lives of their children from adolescence to early adulthood. There are analyses of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation. This is a major portrait of the diversity of American life, its pressures, difficulties, repressions and possibilities, as seen through the eyes of those struggling for a place in the society. Authors: Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut. (460 pages)
Level: A-B/A great resource for projects (especially interdisciplinary) about American immigrants and their culture

Contents: 1. Nine Stories  2. Who They Are and Why They Come  3. Moving: Patterns of Immigrant Settlement and Spatial Mobility  4. Making It in America: Occupational and Economic Adaptation  5. From Immigrants to Ethnics: Identity, Citizenship, and Political Participation  6. A Foreign World: Immigration, Mental Health, and Acculturation  7. Learning the Ropes: Language and Education  8. Growing Up American: The New Second Generation  9. Religion: The Enduring Presence  Conclusion  Notes  References  Index

A specialized but fascinating resource abou the interaction between American immigrants and popular culture:
This is an account of the role immigrants have played as performers, entrepreneurs, and as the subjects of the mass culture industry in America. This book asks the questions:  How does a 'national' popular culture form and grow over time in a nation comprised of immigrants? How have immigrants used popular culture in America, and how has it used them? Through a series of case studies Immigration and American Popular Culture uncovers how specific trends in popular culture — such as portrayals of European immigrants as gangsters in 1930s cinema, the zoot suits of the 1940s, the influence of Jamaican Americans on rap in the 1970s, and cyberpunk and Asian American “zines” in the 1990s — have their roots in the nature of immigration in America. Immigration and American Popular Culture is a unique history of 20th century U.S. immigration with major insights in the field of popular culture. Immigration and cultural production have been completely intertwined in America and we cannot understand one without the other. Authors: Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick. (302 pages)Level: A-B/A resource for projects (especially interdisciplinary) about American immigrants and their culture

In the first decades of the twentieth century, virulent racism lingered from Reconstruction, and segregation increased. Hostility met the millions of new immigrants from Eastern and southern Europe, and immigration was restricted. Still, even in an inhospitable climate, blacks and other minority groups came to have key roles in popular culture, from ragtime and jazz to film and the Harlem Renaissance. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: John F. McClymer. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Race relations in the 1920s ranged from an epidemic of lynchings of African Americans, race riots, and the execution of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti to citizenship for American Indians but not for Mexican immigrants. As the 1930s unfolded, there was more discrimination of Latinos and a legal lynching in the Scottsboro Boys trial, and German Jewish children were refused refuge from Hitler's Germany. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Leslie V. Tischauser. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

The 1940s and 1950s were decades of far-reaching change and mobilization in the United States. White culture strove to make nonwhites invisible with segregation and discrimination as Southern blacks continued the Great Migration north and the government brought in Mexican labor via the Bracero Program to take up labor slack while U.S. troops were overseas. The rise of the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education (which struck down segregation in schools 1954) were some results. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas J. Davis. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Few decades in American history were as full of drama and historical significance as the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, a revolution in race relations occurred, seeing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, the American Indian Movement, and the Latino labour movement. The focus in the 1970s was on carrying out the reforms of the previous decade, with the resulting white backlash. This volume is a source to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas Upchurch. Hardback. (180 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium