Driven Out
The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans
Named one of the “100 Notable Books of the Year” by the New York Times and recently optioned for a 4-part television series!
Driven Out exposes the shocking story of ethnic cleansing in California and the Pacific Northwest when the first Chinese Americans were rounded up and purged from more than three hundred communities by lawless citizens and duplicitous politicians.
ORDER TODAY!
A story that defines us as a nation and marks our humanity.
The brutal and systematic “ethnic cleansing” of Chinese Americans in California and the Pacific Northwest that arose in the second half of the nineteenth century is a shocking — and virtually unexplored — chapter of American history. From 1848 into the twentieth century, Chinatowns were burned across the West as Chinese miners and merchants, lumberjacks and fieldworkers, prostitutes and merchants' wives were violently loaded onto railroad cars or steamers, marched out of town, or killed.
But the Chinese fought back with arms, strikes, and lawsuits, and by flatly refusing to leave. When red posters appeared on barns and windows across the United States urging the Chinese to refuse to carry photo identity cards, more than one hundred thousand joined the largest mass civil disobedience to date in the United States. The first Chinese Americans were marched out and starved out. But even facing brutal pogroms, they stood up for their civil rights as immigrant and US citizens.
Awarded the Asian Pacific American Literature Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2007, Driven Out features riveting characters, both heroic and villainous, Asian and white. This deeply resonant and eye-opening work documents a significant and disturbing episode in American history. It has been translated for international audiences, including a Mandarin edition.
San Francisco Chronicle Top Books of 2007
Bloomsbury Review “Favorite Books” 2007
Choice Magazine “Outstanding Academic Books” 2007
Globalist “Top Ten Books of 2007”
News, Views, Reviews Magazine “Best of 2007”
Asian American “Ten Most-Wished-For Books” 2008
Praise for Driven Out
Select Media for Driven Out
(Film / Television / Documentary)
“Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans” optioned for 4-part dramatized television series, 2021-2, Noble Hearts Productions
“1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act,” directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu. PBS The American Experience Series
“The American Experience Chinese Exclusion Acts” WCVE PBS Richmond, VA, screening and speaker, October 7, 2018
“African American Slavery in California” CSPAN 3, 2015 and ongoing, https://www.c-span.org/video/?328894-6/african-american-slavery-california
“Gold Mountain: Chinese in the Old West” Dir. Doug Shultz’s PBS/CCBS co-produced special on Chinese immigration to the Americas. 2017
“The Colored Conventions in California” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmARrnFrwY8
ABC Nightline, consultant, 2021
“Anti-Asian Hate Crimes,” World Insight Interview CGTN China Global Television Network, April 2021
America.CGTN.com, March 2021
“Equality, Identity, and Hope: Race in America” comcast.net, consultant
“The Search for General Tso” Jennifer Lee. Wicked Delicate Films. (adaptation of best-selling "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles") Historical Consultant 2011-2012
“The Chinese Experience in Rural California” PBS/CPBS/KEET writer/dir. With Bill Moyers Chinese Experience in America
“Driven Out at Angel Island” Labor Fest, San Francisco, Syndicated, July 3, 2010, at Angel Island, California
Featured Interview C-SPAN BOOKTV July 21, 2007
Featured Interview KTSF SAN FRANCISCO, Interview on Immigration
“Labor On the Job” SF ATT CABLE 29 Labor Video Host: Steve Zeltzer, July 31, 2007
Featured Interview KFTY TV 50 “Your Turn” Santa Rosa, CA
Featured Interview FORA.TV 15 Commonwealth Club
(Radio / Broadcasts / Podcasts)
KPFA Politics and Letters Mitch Jenerich on Impact of 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act Legislation in 2017
KMUD Pacifica Labor Day Special, September 5, 2010
KPFA “Letters to Washington,” April 28, 2010
KPFA, “The Morning Show,” August, 2009
CBC, February 3, 2009; “Addicted to Race,” Podcast, February 15, 2009
WDAF, "Perspectives," Kansas State Network, Richard Baker, September, 2008
KBOO, “Public Affairs,” Portland, OR, September 2008
KXJZ, “Insight,” Sacramento, Jeffrey Callison, August 2008
NPR WYPR, “The Morning Show”
KPFA, “Against the Grain,” Berkeley, CA, CS Soong, December 3, 2007
KPFK/LA, “The Chinese Exclusion Act,” host Ernesto Arce, November 26, 2007
NPR KQED, “Pacific Time,” San Francisco, K. Oanh Ha, October 11, 2007
NPR /Chicago, “Eight Forty-Eight Morning Newsmagazine,” Allison Cuddy, September 4, 2007
NPR/KPBS “These Days,” San Diego
NPR, “Jefferson Exchange,” E. Oregon, N. California, C: Valerie Ing-Miller, August 3, 2007
Voice of America, “VAO NEWS,” July 30, 2007
NPR WBUR, "Here and Now,” National Syndication, Robin Young, July 19, 2007
NPR, “Tell Me More,” National Syndication, Michal Martin, July 2007
KVON, “Late Mornings,” Napa, CA July 3, 2007
NPR KUOW-FM, “The Beat,” Seattle Megan Sukys, June 26, 2007
China Press, July 3 & 4, 2007
WCBQ-AM, WHNC AM, Oxford, NC, The Paradise Radio Network, “Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones,” Live, June 26, 2007
MSNBC.com, June 25, 2007
Newhouse News Service, Jonathan Tilove, June 22, 2007
KPFA/Pacifica Bay Area, “The Morning Show,” Andrea Lewis June 18, 2007
NPR KHSU, “Thursday Night Talks,” Northwest, CA, David Cobb June 14, 2007
C-SPAN RADIO, 2007-8
KALI/KBLA LA, Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Gary Mercer June 11, 2007
WVMR KVMR, “Book Talk ,” Nevada City, June 11, 2007
KPCC, Los Angeles, June 11, 2007
WPAT Multicultural Radio, National Syndicated, Gene Heinemeyer, June 7, 2007
NPR NY WNYC, “Leonard Lopate Show” June 6, 2007
WBAI/Pacifica Radio, National, May 31, 2007
WBAI Radio, NY “Asia Pacific Forum” Leyla Mei June 5, 2007
APEX/KPFA, Berkeley, CA, May 31, 2007
NPR KUOW, “The Beat,” Seattle Megan Sukys Interview, April 24, 2007