{"product_id":"9780674020030","title":"Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots","description":"No one will soon forget the image, blazed across the airwaves, of armed Korean Americans taking to the rooftops as their businesses went up in flames during the Los Angeles riots. Why Korean Americans? What stoked the wrath the riots unleashed against them? \u003ci\u003eBlue Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to make sense of these questions, to show how Korean Americans, variously depicted as immigrant seekers after the American dream or as racist merchants exploiting African Americans, emerged at the crossroads of conflicting social reflections in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. \u003cp\u003e The situation of Los Angeles's Korean Americans touches on some of the most vexing issues facing American society today: ethnic conflict, urban poverty, immigration, multiculturalism, and ideological polarization. Combining interviews and deft socio-historical analysis, \u003ci\u003eBlue Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e gives these problems a human face and at the same time clarifies the historical, political, and economic factors that render them so complex. In the lives and voices of Korean Americans, the authors locate a profound challenge to cherished assumptions about the United States and its minorities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Why did Koreans come to the United States? Why did they set up shop in poor inner-city neighborhoods? Are they in conflict with African Americans? These are among the many difficult questions the authors answer as they probe the transnational roots and diversity of Los Angeles's Korean Americans. Their work finally shows us in sharp relief and moving detail a community that, despite the blinding media focus brought to bear during the riots, has nonetheless remained largely silent and effectively invisible. An important corrective to the formulaic accounts that have pitted Korean Americans against African Americans, \u003ci\u003eBlue Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e places the Korean American story squarely at the center of national debates over race, class, culture, and community.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTable of Contents: \u003cbr\u003ePreface \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The Los Angeles Riots, the Korean American Story\u003cbr\u003e Reckoning via the Riots\u003cbr\u003e Diaspora Formation: Modernity and Mobility\u003cbr\u003e Mapping the Korean Diaspora in Los Angeles\u003cbr\u003e Korean American Entrepreneurship\u003cbr\u003e American Ideologies on Trial\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e References\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReviews of this book: \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlue Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e--a poetic allusion to the clear blue sky that Koreans see as a symbol of freedom--is a welcome exploration by outsiders into the vexing and largely invisible Korean-American predicament in Los Angeles and the nation. [Abelmann and Lie 's] colorful interview subjects offer sharp observations.\u003cbr\u003e--K.W. Lee, Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReviews of this book: \u003cbr\u003eAn informed and thoughtful examination of Korean immigration to the United States since 1970...[Abelmann and Lie] show that even in a period as short as twenty-five years, there have been successive waves of differently motivated, differently resourced Korean immigrants, and their experiences and reactions have differed accordingly.\u003cbr\u003e--Michael Tonry, Times Literary Supplement\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReviews of this book: \u003cbr\u003e[The authors'] transnational perspective is particularly effective for explicating Korean immigrants' behaviors, activities, and feelings...Interesting and readable.\u003cbr\u003e--Pyong Gap Min, American Journal of Sociology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReviews of this book: \u003cbr\u003eBeginning with a poetic book title, the authors recount in depth as to how the '\u003ci\u003eBlue Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e' of the Korean-American merchants in East Los Angeles had shattered in the midst of [the] 1992 riot that turned out to be 'elusive dreams' in America...The book not only portrays the L.A. riot surrounding the Korean merchants, but also characterizes diaspora of the Koreans in America. The authors have also examined with scholarly insights the more complex socioeconomic and political underplay the Koreans encountered in their 'Promised New Land'.\u003cbr\u003e--Eugene C. Kim, International Migration Review\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47105296236784,"sku":"9780674020030","price":33.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780674020030_p0.jpg?v=1769857211","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780674020030","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}