Overview

Some half million Chinese immigrants settled in the American West in the nineteenth century. In spite of their vital contributions to the economy in gold mining, railroad construction, the founding of small businesses, and land reclamation, the Chinese were targets of systematic political discrimination and widespread violence. This legal history of the Chinese experience in the American West, based on the author's lifetime of research in legal sources all over the West-from California to Montana to New Mexico-serves as a basic account of the legal treatment of Chinese immigrants in the West. The first two essays deal with anti-Chinese racial violence and judicial discrimination. The remainder of the book examines legal precedents and judicial doctrines derived from Chinese cases in specific western states. The Chinese, Wunder shows, used the American legal system to protect their rights and test a variety of legal doctrines, making vital contributions to the legal history of the American West.

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9780826359384

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Reviews

Very few other historians of Chinese America can match [Wunder's] ability to place Chinese legal issues so securely within the context of national events and relations among ethnic groups. --Oregon Historical Quarterly An understanding of the legal position and problems that Chinese Americans faced in the nineteenth century is crucial to an understanding of Chinese American and Asian American history, and this single book provides the foundation necessary. --Southern California Quarterly

An understanding of the legal position and problems that Chinese Americans faced in the nineteenth century is crucial to an understanding of Chinese American and Asian American history, and this single book provides the foundation necessary. --Southern California Quarterly

An understanding of the legal position and problems that Chinese Americans faced in the nineteenth century is crucial to an understanding of Chinese American and Asian American history, and this single book provides the foundation necessary. Southern California Quarterly Wunder excels in his breadth of coverage of legal trends relating to the Chinese in the American West and in the depth of his research in archives across the region. His prose humanizes these cases by sharing the personal stories, motivations, choices, and impacts on the people involved, while clearly explaining the legal issues under consideration. Montana The Magazine of Western History Very few other historians of Chinese America can match [Wunder s] ability to place Chinese legal issues so securely within the context of national events and relations among ethnic groups. Oregon Historical Quarterly

Author Information

John R. Wunder is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A widely published author and editor, his recent works include Reconfigurations of Native North America: An Anthology of New Perspectives and Americans View Their Dust Bowl Experience. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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