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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home

Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home

Paperback

Series: American Encounters/Global Interactions

Black American StudiesGeneral Political ScienceUnited States Politics

ISBN10: 0822327910
ISBN13: 9780822327912
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: Nov 14 2001
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.18
Height: 0.97 Width: 6.06 Depth: 9.26
Language: English
Combining history, autobiography, and ethnography, Georges Woke Up Laughing provides a portrait of the Haitian experience of migration to the United States that illuminates the phenomenon of long-distance nationalism, the voicelessness of certain citizens, and the impotency of government in an increasingly globalized world. By presenting lively ruminations on his life as a Haitian immigrant, Georges Eugene Fouron--along with Nina Glick Schiller, whose own family history stems from Poland and Russia--captures the daily struggles for survival that bind together those who emigrate and those who stay behind.

According to a long-standing myth, once emigrants leave their homelands--particularly if they emigrate to the United States--they sever old nationalistic ties, assimilate, and happily live the American dream. In fact, many migrants remain intimately and integrally tied to their ancestral homeland, sometimes even after they become legal citizens of another country. In Georges Woke Up Laughing the authors reveal the realities and dilemmas that underlie the efforts of long-distance nationalists to redefine citizenship, race, nationality, and political loyalty. Through discussions of the history and economics that link the United States with countries around the world, Glick Schiller and Fouron highlight the forces that shape emigrants' experiences of government and citizenship and create a transborder citizenry. Arguing that governments of many countries today have almost no power to implement policies that will assist their citizens, the authors provide insights into the ongoing sociological, anthropological, and political effects of globalization.

Georges Woke up Laughing will entertain and inform those who are concerned about the rights of people and the power of their governments within the globalizing economy.

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General Political Science