A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki

Predictably, the press release that accompanies my copy of Ronald Takaki’s multicultural history is saturated with references to Barack Obama. One can’t blame the publishers for seeking to cash in on his election; the new edition of this book couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Indeed, I have to admit that my mind followed the same track; the first page I turned to was the ‘O’ section of the index.

There is just one entry here for Obama, referencing two paragraphs in the book’s concluding chapter, which discusses the multiraciality of the typical modern American. So this history stops short of America’s first black president taking office: if Obama’s election is seen as the start of a new kind of multiculturalism, then it is fitting that Takaki’s account should end where it does, serving as a chronicle of the first incarnation of multicultural America.

There could be no multiculturalism without immigration, so this history of the multicultural is necessarily also a history of the immigrant experience in America. The Native Americans Takaki deals with are the exception to this. The first half of the book takes up four main strands: African American, Native American, Mexican, and Irish. We follow the Native Americans as they are gradually pushed further west and shoehorned into ever smaller reserves; their story is in a way the saddest, not rising to a climax of integration like the other cases, but fading away.

In contrast, the blacks begin the book as slaves, but we follow them through emancipation, the civil rights movement and beyond. Similarly, the Mexicans become gradually more integrated and accepted. The Irish strand of the narrative peters out more quickly; the whiteness of these immigrants means that they have fewer hurdles to overcome.

The immigrants of the nineteenth and twentieth century generally moved to America in order to find more lucrative employment in a country whose rapid expansion demanded a growing workforce. As a result, it is necessary for a book like this to describe the experiences of migrant workers, of whom some settled, while others returned home. Cotton picking, railroads, and farm work dominate here, and while Takaki presents a variety of examples, their stories do verge on the repetitive.

Also repetitive are the songs and poems of immigrants, which Takaki is very fond of including. These demonstrate that there are commonalities between different groups, and many of them also show that such groups had similar experiences. The content of the fragments included here generally describe either the working life, or longing for the homeland. A few of these are interesting in their own right, but they eventually become tiresome.

Whether Takaki’s book is considered to succeed in providing a comprehensive history of multicultural America depends on how multiculturalism is defined. There is much talk of assimilation and integration in A Different Mirror, and Takaki is clearly in favour of the latter. There are pitfalls to be encountered when dealing with both of these in one text, and he avoids falling into these, maintaining his argument whether he is writing about persecuted Native Americans or Chinese immigrants in California.

However, the question of what constitutes multiculturalism is a subjective one, and the debate around this issue is never really tackled. What Takaki provides is a catalogue of the major ethnic groups who have developed communities in the US, and an account of how these communities have grown up, and in this respect he has done an excellent job. But although there is some discussion of how these groups have interacted with the generally dominant whites, much of this is trite: in areas such as slavery and the Japanese Americans interred in camps during World War II we are by now well aware of the wrongs committed.

In addition, there is barely any discussion of integration amongst different immigrant groups: only the commonalities drawn between Irish and Chinese railroad workers, and the multicultural American army of World War II shows the immigrant groups interacting to any degree.

Essentially, this is a book of immigration rather than one of multiculturalism. Filling in the gaps in American history that have been left open by predominantly white historians is a laudable achievement, and Takaki delivers a detailed and meticulously researched product (although a bibliography would be an asset).

But ultimately he provides us with the multiple histories of American cultures, rather than a history of multicultural America. A Different Mirror was first published in 1993, and times have moved on enough that no one could claim it is too early for a new edition.

Perhaps in another 15 years there will be a third edition: there would undoubtedly be much more to say, as the question of multiculturalism grows ever more complex and starts to dominate mainstream history writing. But if such a volume was to appear, then the most valuable addition to it would be a more rigorous analysis of what multiculturalism actually means to Americans of all ethnicities.