Active Political Role Research Articles

Modifiable Factors that Support Political Participation by Nurses.

Political participation is an opportunity for individuals to give their time and energy in such a way that it benefits others and advances relevant agendas. Political participation is a key issue for nurses because they are familiar with clinical issues that directly impact health care policies instituted at the local, state, and federal levels. Collectively, nurses also represent the largest number of health care providers in the United States and are among the most trusted health professionals. However, there are many obstacles that prevent nurses from taking a more active role in politics, creating a gap in how nurses pursue and respond to political participation, or civic engagement. The purpose of this exploratory review is to identify modifiable factors that support political participation among nurses. A review of the extant literature revealed three primary factors that promote civic engagement among nurses: (a) integration of political education in the nursing curriculum; (b) value of active psychological engagement, including a personal interest in political knowledge and information; and (c) value of collective influence such as membership in professional organizations.

Indigenous Peasant ‘Otherness’: Rural Identities and Political Processes inBolivia

SinceMorales's election, rural movements have become the new protagonists ofBolivian politics. Previous analyses have emphasised their active role in shaping national politics, often focusing on those organisations as a compact block. However, their relationship is marked by both cooperation and fragmentation. This article provides a narrative ofBolivian socio‐political history over the last 60 years, establishing four main phases of identitarian articulations/disarticulations. It demonstrates the high degree of interdependence and fluidity of ethnic and class identities, as well as their interconnections with the broader socio‐political context and the national legal and institutional changes.

Adatok Bagol András történelem szemléletéhez

András Bagol’s ouvre caught the attention of the ethnographers already in the early 20th century. His sheperd’s crooks, which were inlaid with wax and embellished with his-torical scenes or portraits of Hungarian heroes, were sought after among the wealthy collectors and public collections alike. They are pieces of art of the highest quality, in which the sheperds’ tradition of the Transdanubia is preserved. One of his works, which has been previously unknown, is kept in the museum of Győr: a sheperd’s crook with wax inlay from the year of 1877. This crook was made in honor of Kázmér Hegedűs, its central themes are, beside the customer’s fam-ily, the herds of horses on the great Hungarian Plains and the city of Pécs. Some previously unknown letters of Bagol written to Ottó Herman verify that he was a soldier in 1848-49 and was forced into hiding after the fall of the War of In-dependence. From the 1880s he resumed an active role in politics as a canvasser of the 48 Independence Party (48-as Függetlenségi Párt). One of his poems he wrote about the elections reveals his view of history, elements of which are indicated in the carvings of his many crooks as well.

Women and crime in contemporary China: a review essay

In the neoliberal West, while the growing awareness of women’s crimes in academic criminology has greatly extended our knowledge and understanding of the relation between women and crime, the growing visibility of female crime in popular culture brings with it a set of distinct problems that relate to the common misrepresentation of the actuality of female crime. In this article, we question whether similar trends can be identified elsewhere. We seek to address this question by focusing on female offending in China since the 1980s. Following a partial and preliminary account of female offending in this vast country, our attempt is to make some meaningful comparison and also to identify one or two key theories that might enable us to better understand the increased visibility of female offending in this non-“Western” country – one destined to play a much more active role in global culture and politics as the twenty-first century unfolds.

Fighting the Hellhounds: Pro-democracy Activists and Party Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia

In the literature on post-Suharto Indonesia, an increasingly dominant stream has portrayed the political system as being hijacked by predatory elite interests associated with the fallen New Order regime. While such characterisations describe important elements of the post-1998 polity, they do not tell the full story. At the same time that patronage-driven career politicians have staked their claims in the newly democratic state, a large number of civil society activists also started to play an active role in formal politics. This article illustrates how human rights advocates, women activists and labour leaders have tried to promote their causes not from the margins of civil society, but from within the power centre of political institutions. To be sure, some activists-turned-politicians have failed in this effort, but others have initiated key pieces of legislation that led to ground-breaking reforms. In comparative terms, the article demonstrates that Indonesian activists have created an effective political niche for themselves, avoiding both the patterns of state co-optation so prevalent in South Korea and the anti-system attitudes of activist politicians in Malaysia.

Post Neo-Liberalism and the Humanities: What the Repressive State Apparatus Means for Universities

In this article we explore how neo-liberal and post neo-liberal policies threaten the humanities in post-secondary education as a potential site of democratic dialogue and social transformation. We distinguish between neo-liberalism and post neo-liberalism on the basis of the latter’s increased police suppression of democratic dissent. We are especially concerned with the impact of the repressive state apparatus on the critical public spaces traditionally provided by a humanities education. In response to this threat, we propose encouraging university faculty to assume a far more active political role in educating the general public on the relationship between the humanities and democratic societies.

The external constitution of European identity: Russia and Turkey as Europe-makers

The view of identities as always situated in a relationship with the Other underlies contemporary constructivist social theory. Taking a step further, and combining constructivist approaches to identity with insights from post-colonial studies, this article argues that the Other, far from being a mere presence, often plays an active role in identity politics. By tracing the historically varying ways in which Turkey and Russia have engaged in European identity construction, it demonstrates that this is an interactive process of negotiation between the European Self and its external Others in which agency of the Other is revealed. In particular, Russia and Turkey exercise agency by challenging, each in its own manner, the EU’s power to define the normative meaning of Europe. While Turkey has contributed to a decentring of European identity by challenging the self-perception of Europe as a multicultural space, Russia’s uncompromising stance tends to consolidate the EU-centred image of Europe as a political community based on liberal democratic values.

Bolsa Família, poverty and inequality: Political and economic effects in the short and long run

Created in 2003 by the unification of four earlier initiatives, Bolsa Família currently provides cash transfers to 13 million people and supports more than one-third of the children that go to primary school in Brazil. This article extends and expands previous reviews on the origins, development and impact of the programme. The authors consider the political and economic dimensions in their evaluation of Bolsa Família’s contribution to the reduction of poverty and inequality. They argue that Bolsa Família’s ultimate impact will partly depend on a reduction of inequalities in public provision of health and education, which in turn may require a more active political role for the poor.

Japan's Peace-building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role (review)

Reviewed by: Japan's Peace-building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role Paul Midford (bio) Japan's Peace-building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role. By Lam Peng Er. Routledge, New York, 2009. xi, 171 pages. 75.00. This is a must-read book for anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of Japan's foreign and security policies. It contains surprises even for experts well versed in Japanese foreign policy. I suspect many other specialists will at best be only dimly aware of Japan's activism in peace and human security promotion in Mindanao, Sri Lanka, and Aceh, or of Japan's continuing support for East Timor and Cambodia, before picking up Lam's book. This work could have at least two additional subtitles. One would be "The Fukuda Doctrine and Japan's Relationship with Southeast Asia." The other would be "The Role of Domestic Politics." In short, Lam brings a bird's-eye view from his perch in Singapore to understanding Japan's relationship with Southeast Asia while using his expertise in Japanese domestic politics to show how this influences foreign policy. Although shedding light on a significant but hitherto obscure aspect of Japanese foreign policy, Lam's book nevertheless engages the main academic debate in the field today, namely, whether Japan is "normalizing" into a great power that uses military force as an instrument to promote national objectives abroad. Looking at this issue from his unique angle, Lam is fully convincing when he argues that Japan has found its niche in international security: non-combat-related peace building. Lam is similarly persuasive in arguing that those promoting the idea of Japan "normalizing" into a military great power have overlooked this development: "In their accounts of the trajectory of Japan's role, purpose and identity in the world, Pyle, Samuels and Green have missed out an important direction in the nation's foreign policy since the end of the Cold War—the quest to end civil wars and begin post-conflict reconstruction" (p. 4). One might add to Lam's list of leading "normalizing" literature Christopher W. Hughes's Japan's Remilitarisation.1 On the other hand, Lam's volume joins a growing literature challenging the normal-nation thesis.2 [End Page 498] Lam is also convincing when he asserts that his study of five cases of Japanese peace building reveals that "claims that Tokyo's peace-building is reactive, ad hoc and essentially driven by Washington" are "off the mark" (p. 6). Indeed, there is little indication that the United States has ever pushed participation by the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in UN peacekeeping missions, any more than it has seriously promoted UN peacekeeping itself. Finally, Lam insightfully observes that "Tokyo's dispatch of the SDF to East Timor . . . did not attract any disquiet or misgivings from its Asian neighbors as had earlier been the case with Cambodia, when there was the perception that deploying the SDF abroad was merely a prelude to Japan seeking to become a great military power again" (p. 41). The demonstration effect of Tokyo's peaceful and beneficial dispatch of the SDF to Cambodia thus reassured Asian nations, suggesting that peace building can empower Japan to "forge an identity as an active and positive 'peace-loving' country acceptable to its citizens and Asian neighbors" (p. 5). Less convincing is Lam's contention that the Fukuda Doctrine is not an extension of the Yoshida Doctrine as many observers claim but a radical departure from it, because the former calls for Japan to play a political role while the latter, in Lam's eyes, calls for avoiding any external political role. One may question Lam's understanding of the Yoshida Doctrine, but he at least notes the disagreement. More dubious is his insinuation that the two are equivalent if not competing doctrines (p. 19), when in fact the Yoshida Doctrine is a grand strategy, however implicit, while the Fukuda Doctrine, despite its explicit articulation, is a regional diplomatic strategy. The Fukuda Doctrine is silent on most important aspects of Japan's security, such as the U.S.-Japan alliance and potential threats. Most doubtful is Lam's claim that the...

Japan's Peace-building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role [Book Review

Review(s) of: Japan's Peace-building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role, by Lam Peng Er., New York: Routledge, 2009, x + 171 pp.

Robert Jackson Alexander (1918 – 2010)

When I first entered the crowded Rutgers office of Robert Jackson Alexander a quarter-century ago, I had no idea what to expect from the man, officially an economist, whose books were required starting points for any scholar interested in the key forces and episodes of South American politics after World War II. I knew him as a prolific author who wrote the first books in English on numerous topics including Perón (The Perón Era, 1951), Latin American communism (Communism in Latin America, 1957), the 1952 Bolivian Revolution (The Bolivian National Revolution, 1958), and organized labor in the ABC countries (Organized Labor in Latin America, 1965). I was uncomfortable due to the distance between my own outlook and my host’s openly anticommunist social democratic politics and alignment with US foreign policy. His archival holdings, which I had come to exploit, proved far richer than I ever imagined, but I was most surprised when he skipped initial pleasantries to size me up by launching into a good-natured discussion of his relationship with Jay Lovestone, the éminence grise of the AFL and AFL-CIO foreign policy during the Cold War. A preeminently political man, Bob Alexander won me over precisely by addressing the political fissure that stood between us; he really hadn’t known, he said, that money for his trips in the 1950s came from the CIA, while he admitted with honesty that it likely wouldn’t have bothered him if he had known at the time.I think back to this first exchange — notes on what I had to say about labor in Brazil were typed up and dropped into his ever-growing folders of interviews — for what it taught me about a man whose career was characterized by center-left activist convictions and sincere belief in the essential good faith of the US mission in Latin America. Bob’s ability to reach across lines of difference without hiding his own dispositions was crucial to the intelligence he gathered through the ten thousand or so interviews he recorded with Latin Americans, Latin Americanists, and others across 60 years of travel to all of the countries of the region. At the same time, his reports to Lovestone and the political narrative that filled his books spoke to his shrewd ability to assess the political field of play without self-serving illusions even about his own allies and their (often) inconvenient friends.Born in Canton, Ohio, in 1918, Bob Alexander passed away on April 27, 2010. He lived 88 of his 92 years in New Jersey, where he grew up while his father taught at Columbia. His first exposure to Latin America came through Frank Tannenbaum at Columbia, where he received a BA in 1940 and an MA in 1941. After service in the Air Force during World War II, he first traveled to Latin America in 1946 to carry out dissertation research on Chilean labor relations. He received his PhD in economics from Columbia in 1950 and took a position in the Economics Department at Rutgers University, where he remained until his retirement in 1989. Following an interdisciplinary approach, his research, interviews, and writing focused on the social and political forces at play in rapidly modernizing societies that were being transformed by the advent of mass politics. As he would observe with humor about his early start, “I became an ‘expert’ on Latin America precisely because no one knew anything about it.”As a longtime activist in the US Socialist Party and its descendents, Bob played an active political role within the United States as a citizen, a Democrat, a unionized college professor, and an advisor — in the halcyon days leading up to the Alliance for Progress — in the halls of Washington. Within Latin America, he maintained a wide circle of friends and contacts and served as both a student of, an informal advisor to, and a key propagandist for such central political figures of mid-century South America as Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre (Aprismo: The Ideas and Doctrines of Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, 1973) and Rómulo Betan-court (The Venezuelan Democratic Revolution: A Profile of the Regime of Rómulo Betancourt, 1964; Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela, 1982). Despite his preferences, it was not at all out of character that in 1959 he was in Havana to conduct an interview with Ernesto “Ché” Guevara, nor that he turned against the revolution as communist shortly thereafter. It was this reach, and his enormous energy as a collector and documentarian, that produced the splendid archive at Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives, the full potential and impact of which will be increasingly felt over the coming decades. (Many of his interviews and pamphlets are available or soon to be published in microfilm; please consult the collection guide at http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/manuscripts/alexanderf.html.)

The Missing Link in EU Democracy? Why a Transnational Public Sphere Matters

The European Union’s perceived democratic deficit has various sources, but it is to a large extent the outcome of unresolved disputes about the locus of democratic rule in EU decision making. As decision making moves to supranational (and transnational) arenas, intergovernmentalists maintain that democratic legitimacy, and therefore also democratic procedures, should remain rooted in the nation state. Without settling normative questions as to whether a reconstitution of democracy beyond the nation state is desirable, answers to questions about the democratic quality of EU decision making will remain conceptually blurry and thus inconclusive. While these issues blur paths to a democratic reform of the EU’s institutional architecture, they also impair the prospect for a fundamental infrastructural requirement for European-level democracy, namely a lively European public sphere that can serve as a counterweight to institutional decision making at the EU level. The literature on the European public sphere suggests that a European public sphere can be conceptualized as a transnational communicative network in the existing national mass media. Drawing on empirical material from debates on EU constitution making in Swedish and German daily newspapers, this article not only shows that newspapers already play an active role in framing EU politics, but furthermore suggests that deliberation on EU politics already follows transnational patterns. While deliberation is seen by some to hinge on the prior existence of normatively integrated communities, our analysis suggests that transnational communities with a preference for intergovernmental and supranational integration, respectively, are already well established.

Italians and the Invention of Race: The Poetics and Politics of Difference in the Struggle over Libya, 1890-1913

This essay is part of a book in progress about Italy and Africa in the modern and modernist Italian literary imagination and cultural identity, from Gabriele d’Annunzio to Ennio Flaiano’s Tempo di uccidere (1947). It argues that racism, colonialism, and imperialism are not an incidental, minor (and thus, understandably largely forgotten) component of Italian identity and Italian history, but that in the final years of “Liberal Italy,” they became increasingly a defining trait of the imaginary Italian national identity. As in the Risorgimento, literature and the literary imagination played a crucial role in this unifying process. In a nation whose wealth and growth after unification were effectively based on the exploitation of voiceless women and peasants and where parliamentary politics was soon reduced to cynical maneuvers, bargains, and intrigues, intellectuals, writers, and idealists had sought in vain a principle around which a strong sense of national identity and community could, however belatedly, take form. An imaginary construction of racial difference and the fashioning of an imaginary “Italian” ethnic national identity, contributed more than any other element to unify Italians and give them the sense of being “one nation.” The word and concept razza in this period, are not used just as another way of saying patria, but rather to forge the sense of an imaginary yet essential identity. This imaginary sense of identity could entice and include even those who, like women, Catholics, Jews, peasants, and Southerners, were (or felt) excluded or alienated from the humanist discourse and the paternalistic yet secular rhetoric of Italian Risorgimental patriotism. This new imaginary identity was constructed and reinforced increasingly by applying the debasing colonial logic of otherness outside rather than inside the nation’s borders. The creation of an imaginary racially different and inferior “other” on the other side of the Mediterranean finally allowed for an Italian identity to come together as never before. The Libyan war was construed largely as a literary fantasy and a utopian wish-fulfillment. It represents the culmination of a racial process of self-definition by Italians, through which the profoundly disintegrating internal differences of race, gender, class, and religious belief that threatened the very notion of a united Italy were at once repressed, forgotten, and surpassed. Through the racialization of literary discourse, poets and prose writers took, for the first time in the history of united Italy, an active political role that in some ways was even more influential than that of professional politicians.

Striking Out: Women and Political Participation in Egypt and Morocco

What enables the political participation of women in Egypt and Morocco outside of regime-sponsored political behavior? Women in Egypt and Morocco are outliers in terms of formal and informal challenges to the status quo. Wide variation exists in terms of participants both within country and in a regional comparison of women and political behavior. Current data is lacking as to their motivations and how the women are mobilized. Theories developed within the United States to explain individual-level participation can not access the variance in challenges made by women as well as the issues and gendered ideologies under which women act. I seek to better explicate the mechanisms by which women take part in politics in Near East. Finding the present theories inadequate to explain the political participation of women in these two cases, I build a theory that privileges mobilization strategies, gendered political openings and the role of women within society. By using existing survey data, intensive interviews and an original survey, I will provide data to help answer the larger question of what leads women to take a more active role in politics globally.

The changing patterns of Indo-French relations: From Cold War estrangement to strategic partnership in the twenty-first century

This article analyses the changing patterns of Indo-France relations and traces issues of conflict and cooperation, and continuity and change between the two countries. It argues that although France's traditional-cultural relations with pre-independent India had been good, diplomatic and political relations during the entire Cold War period were far from being friendly; rather they were formal, commercial and business oriented. Nevertheless, as a result of certain factors, France was the main country that India relied upon next to the Soviet Union. The end of the Cold War ushered in new challenges for India, compelling it to undertake a thorough revision of its foreign policy. India's neo-realist aspirations to play a more active role in global politics, the French strategic support to India during the Pokharan nuclear tests, the far-reaching changes in Europe and the desire of both countries for an all-round intensification of cooperation have led to a transformation of Indo-French relations from a ‘buyer-seller syndrome’ to a strategic partnership in the twenty-first century. Going by the current trend, the future of Franco-India relations look promising.

Rosalee A. Clawson and Zoe M. Oxley (2008). Public Opinion: Democratic Ideals, Democratic Practice.

One of the core principles of a democratic society is that citizens are expected to have some kind of role in the governance of that society. Democratic theorists, however, disagree on whether the people should play a more active or passive role in politics and decision making, and also whether citizens are actually competent enough to function effectively and live up to what is expected of them in a healthy democracy. In their well-written, comprehensive, and engaging textbook Public Opinion: Democratic Ideals, Democratic Practice, Rosalee A. Clawson and Zoe M. Oxley weigh these and other important normative questions central to democratic theory in the light of prominent research in the field of public opinion. The 10 literature review chapters of Clawson and Oxley's book are organized into four sections, and are all clearly linked to underlying normative assumptions and implications. Each section addresses a key empirical question: Are citizens pliable? Do citizens organize their political thinking? Do citizens endorse and demonstrate democratic basics? And finally, what is the relationship between citizens and their government? In each chapter, these fundamental questions are brought into sharp focus as the authors elegantly synthesize a broad range of influential and inspiring studies on public opinion, both classical and recent.

Constraints on women politicians in Northern Cyprus

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the specific reasons for the Turkish women in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus not reaching the same level of achievement in the political sphere as their male counterparts. The aim is to draw attention to the extremely low participation of women in politics (6 per cent) and suggest possible solutions to increase it.Design/methodology/approach – The study consists of interviews with seven women who played an active role in politics and who are still in the political arena as parliamentarians or ministers.Findings – It was found that the major political problem of the island, “the Cyprus problem”, has had a significant impact on the confinement of women in the private sphere. In addition, the divided land constitutes a higher restriction on women. Moreover, gatherings in coffeehouses and the time of such meetings are important difficulties. Furthermore, the women's branches of the political parties constitute a serious barrier.Research limitations/i...

Yoruba Identity and Power Politics, edited by Toyin Falola and Ann Genova

Yoruba Identity and Power Politics provides a comprehensive analysis of Yoruba history in the contemporary world. The authors of the essays are proven Yoruba historians, the majority of them of Yoruba origin, and they are close to the sources of the evidence used in this well-illustrated book. Several of the contributors live and teach in Nigerian universities. There is already a substantial literature on the history of the Yoruba, but this book is distinctive in that it provides a modern approach to presenting and reconstructing Yoruba history beyond the Oyo model. The book emphasizes the idea that Yoruba history and politics in Nigeria are dynamic rather than static. It is an excellent resource for researchers, students, and teachers. The simple style makes the book a valuable asset to non-historians who are Yoruba enthusiasts. When I was a college student some twelve years ago, no one taught the history of the Yoruba in Hausaland. Only a few academic programmes on the Yoruba language included minor courses on the Yoruba outside the western part of Nigeria, and Oyo was generally seen as the key to constructing Yoruba history. Although this may be a plausible generalization, the recent diversification of academic attention to other regions (where Yoruba people live and play an active role in politics) is clearly an interesting and provocative development.

BCRA's Impact on the Political Expenditures of Corporate Interests

This paper presents evidence and makes arguments that challenge existing assumptions about the effectiveness of BCRA as well as the nature of corporate political strategy. Borrowing from agency theory, I present an analysis of principal actors in the corporation that suggests that corporate interests are playing a far more active role in electoral politics after BCRA than previously claimed.

<i>Chinese Americans and the Second World War</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Chinese Americans and the Second World War Joseph Tse-Hei Lee Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War. By K. Scott Wong. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008. Pp. 256. Americans First presents an insightful analysis of the experience of Chinese Americans during World War II. K. Scott Wong draws on extensive archival sources, memoirs, periodicals and interviews to examine the identity formation, networking and survival strategies of Chinese Americans during the war. According to Wong, the war transformed the American perceptions of the Chinese and Chinese Americans as China and the United States fought as allies against Japan. The second-generation Chinese Americans joined the army, fought against Germany and Japan, and participated in defense-related industries on the home front. This enabled them to assert their Chinese identity and claim American citizenship in the midst of the war. The book is composed of six chapters. Chapter One examines the Chinese American reactions to Japanese aggression in China during the 1930s and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Chinese Americans raised money and supported China’s war efforts against Japan. They boycotted Japanese goods in Chinese American urban communities, better known as Chinatowns. Some took advantage of the anti-Japanese political climate and called for an end to Japanese American business activity in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Chapter Two looks at the social, economic and political transformation of Chinatowns throughout the war. The American entry into World War II had created new opportunities for Chinese Americans in the war industry. Many Chinese Americans joined the military for the first time; some also took up white-collar professions. They crossed the racial boundaries and assumed new social roles when they interacted with a broader spectrum of American people in new situations. Thus, they contributed to China’s wartime efforts and were able to obtain American citizenship through military service. The change of American perceptions of the Chinese and Chinese Americans is discussed in Chapter Three. Once China became an ally of the United States, the racial barriers to Chinese migration were abandoned. In 1943, the U.S. government repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This allowed the Chinese to enter the United States and apply for naturalization. By becoming the “good Asians in the good war,” Chinese Americans carved out for themselves a small place in American society. But the drawback is that they internalized the racial discourse of the time and distanced themselves from Japanese Americans throughout the war. Chapter Four argues that Chinese Hawaiians had a different wartime experience from that of Chinese Americans on the mainland. As a cosmopolitan [End Page 298] and multiethnic society, Hawaii was more tolerant of ethnic minorities than the rest of the United States. But during the war, mainland racism affected the race relations in Hawaii. The growing American military presence on the island brought about the intensification of discrimination against black soldiers which the military did nothing to stop. Many Chinese Hawaiians who had joined the military found they had to adjust to this new environment of white antagonism against the blacks and other minorities. At the same time their exposure to mainland racial attitudes made them realize that the whites, or haole (upperclass whites in Hawaii), were not necessarily superior human beings relative to Asians or other ethnic groups. This awareness prepared them for a more active role in postwar Hawaiian society and politics. The U.S. military provided a safe haven from deportation for illegal migrants during the war. Chapter Five focuses on the Fourteenth Air Service Group, which consisted of nine units with the highest concentration of Chinese American personnel in the military. These were segregated military units created out of convenience to accommodate those Chinese military recruits who were illegal migrants and not fluent in English. But these segregated units established on the basis of race were not effective in turning working-class migrants into professional soldiers; they only provided technical support for the regular army. Nevertheless, the white-collar professional training and skills that Chinese soldiers acquired in the military did help them to integrate into American society after the war. Evidently these changes during the war led...