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"Eloquent, evocative, and urgent, Espiritu's Body Counts constantly hits the mark with regard to recalibrating and redirecting the dominant narrative about refugees as traumatized subjects. Espiritu focuses instead on the ways in which a close analysis of these bodies are integral to understanding the past, present, and future of U.S. imperialism and militarism."—Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, author of War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work
"Espiritu uses her considerable scholarly talent to develop the notion of refuge(ee) not as a social problem but as a conceptual prism that exposes the multiple legacies of U.S. militarized violence and colonialism. Original and trenchantly argued, this book refracts light on the invisible stories of Vietnamese refugees and points us towards new innovative approaches for future inquiries."—Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, author of Paradise Transplanted: Migration and the Making of California Gardens
"A pathbreaking work in “critical refuge(e) studies,” Body Counts introduces extremely rich and provocative new methodologies for investigating the humanitarian violence of U.S. military empire. Compelling us to move beyond the familiar terms of American war narrative and its silences, Espiritu offers the everyday refugee life as a site of politicizing possibilities and hopes for a world radically remade."—Lisa Yoneyama, Professor, University of Toronto, author of Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space and the Dialectics of Memory
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Critical Refuge(e) Studies
2. Militarized Refuge(es)
3. Refugee Camps and the Politics of Living
4. The “Good Warriors” and the “Good Refugee”
5. Refugee Remembering—and Remembrance
6. Refugee Postmemories: The “Generation After”
7. “The Endings That Are Not Over”
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Yen Le Espiritu is Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of the award-winning Home Bound: Filipino American Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries (UC Press, 2003).
Summary
Examines how the Vietnam War has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up of American imperialist adventure and for the (re)production of American and Vietnamese American identities.
Additional text
"An important addition to the transnational history of the Vietnam War, Cold War global history, and the history of Asian migration to the United States. . . . An Innovative work."
