Part 1 depicts the brutal appropriation of indigenous land and black labor by white colonialists, settlers, and slaveholders. The power differentials of race and ethnicity, as tied to class interests, is another prominent theme in Takaki’s work. Ultimately, these representations of racial difference reveal more about the creation and consolidation of a white American identity than about the people Caliban supposedly represents. He is Indian, black, Irish, Mexican, Jewish, Chinese, and so on. Variously portrayed as “savage,” “barbaric,” “dark,” “lustful,” “deceitful,” and “sinister,” Caliban stands in for the assumed characteristics of every conceivable ethnic group. Early on, Takaki sets up the trope of Caliban-a figure from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest-to show how English representations of “the Other” took on different meanings in different contexts.
His extensive use of songs, poems, memoirs, letters, diaries, and folklore presents an alternative history of America that also is highly ethnographic in its description of the everyday, lived experiences of ethnic minorities.Ĭonceptually, A Different Mirror advances theories about race and ethnicity, treating these not as static categories but as relational, cultural constructs that gain salience through shared imaginaries and common experiences across time and space. While Takaki addresses key epochs and figures in American history, his approach is distinctly revisionist, as he pays close attention to the narratives and perspectives of peoples who typically are not recorded in official histories.
Organized into four distinct thematic periods, respectively entitled “Foundations,” “Contradictions,” “Transitions,” and “Transformations,” A Different Mirror presents a sweeping history of America from its earliest settlement by Europeans through the 21st century. Instead, Takaki’s book addresses the foundational contributions of minority groups and puts their experiences at the forefront of American history. Takaki’s approach to history is highly comparative and inclusive, as he disrupts a “Master Narrative of American History” that largely focuses on the achievements of white Americans (4). Takaki’s main argument in A Different Mirror is that the United States, from its inception, has been a multicultural and diverse country, originally inhabited by Native Americans and by subsequent ethnic groups who have worked to advance the ideals of American democracy and its promise of “equality for all.” Takaki provocatively states that America was not settled and developed primarily by Europeans rather, it was built from the appropriated land and labor of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, and many more ethnic immigrant groups.
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