Book Talk: Strangers in the Land by Michael Luo

Strangers in the Land tells the story of a people who, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan­—Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed these Chinese arrivals, but, as their numbers grew, horrific episodes of racial terror erupted on the Pacific coast. A prolonged economic downturn that idled legions of white workingmen helped create the conditions for what came next: a series of progressively more onerous federal laws aimed at excluding Chinese laborers from the country, marking the first time the United States barred a people based on their race. In a captivating debut, Michael Luo, an executive editor of The New Yorker and a former New York Times reporter, follows the Chinese from these early years to modern times, as they persisted in the face of bigotry and persecution, revealing anew the complications of our multiracial democracy.

In 1889, while upholding Chinese exclusion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field characterized Chinese immigrants as “strangers in the land.” Only in 1965 did America’s gates swing open to people like Luo’s parents, immigrants from Taiwan. Today, there are more than 22 million people of Asian descent in the United States, and yet the “stranger” label, Luo writes, remains. Drawing on archives from across the country and written with a New Yorker writer’s style and sweep, Strangers in the Land is revelatory and unforgettable, an essential American story. It has been honored as a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, TIME, Bloomberg, Businessweek, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal, and is longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.

Books will be available for purchase and signing after the talk.