Marketing the American Creed Abroad
Diasporas in the U.S. and their Homelands

This book, first published in 1999, examines the interaction of domestic and foreign issues in the lives of ethnic Americans.

Yossi Shain (Author)

9780521645317, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 March 1999

314 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

"...Recounts the historical impact of immigrant communities on U.S. foreign policy, trouncing the proposition that ethnic lobbyying on behalf of homeland causes has been somehow disloyal to the American national interest. Shain also persuasively traces the mostly laudatory work of establish U.S. diaspora communities, especially those from Eastern Europe,in bolstering transitional homeland democracies." Peter Spiro, International Migration Review

This book, first published in 1999, examines the interaction of domestic and foreign issues in the lives of ethnic Americans. Arguing that the damaging impact of ethnic influences on US foreign affairs has been overstated and misrepresented, Shain brings a new dimension to the public debate on multiculturalism by exploring its transnational aspects. Ethnic groups, despite residual attachments to their homelands, do not betray American political values and ideals, but, on the contrary, their involvement in homeland related affairs has been instrumental in their dissemination inside and outside the US. Shain evaluates ethnic groups in the US from a broad theoretical and comparative perspective, and his case studies include, among others, Arab-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and African-Americans. Marketing the American Creed Abroad by Yossi Shain was named the Best Book of 1999 by the Israel Political Science Association.

1. US diasporas in the era of transnationalism
2. US ethnic diasporas in the struggle for democracy and self-determination
3. Arab-American identity and new transnational challenges
4. Transnational influences on ethnoracial relations in the US: the case of Black/Jewish disputes
5. 'Go but do not forget me': Mexico, the Mexican diaspora and US-Mexican relations
6. Conclusion: diasporas and the American national interest.

Subject Areas: Ethnic studies [JFSL]