Ngai, Mae

Ngai’s thoroughly researched work is essential for anyone studying the Chinese diaspora in the Anglo American world, or gold rushes generally. Readers interested in Chinese immigrants in the 19th-century United States should also consider Gordon H. Chang’s Ghosts of Gold Mountain.

Ngai has written a remarkable chronicle of one particular multigenerational family. This scholarly, heavily footnoted book can be read by both laypersons and serious scholars interested in minority American history, social change, and ethnic studies.