Inside America's Concentration Camps: Two Centuries of Internment and Torture - Hardcover

Dickerson, James L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 155652806X ISBN 13: 9781556528064

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2010

Synopsis

Xenophobia, paranoia, and racism have long challenged democracy, a battle played out dramatically in the concentration camps that were built, staffed, and filled with adults and children under the orders of the U.S. government. Beginning in the nineteenth century with the imprisonment of Native Americans, camps reappeared during World War II with the roundup of Japanese Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. They resurfaced recently when Homeland Security awarded a major contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton for the construction of new camps.

            In Inside America's Concentration Camps, author James L. Dickerson explores the history and the tragedy of the camps in a vivid narrative that brings the stories of the victims and the flaws of our government to life. Rebecca Neugin, Eleanor Berg, Roy Abbey, Marino Sichi, Louise Ogawa—these are some of the children and adults whose stories are found here, along with accounts of the U.S. government yanking children out of orphanages to imprison them in the camps.

            To fight the erosion of democracy, Americans must remain aware of threats to our democratic ideals and understand where we have been. Inside America's Concentration Camps is an authoritative history, a heartbreaking and inspirational story of survival, and a call to action. 

About this title

About the Author:

James L. Dickerson is an investigative journalist and the author of Devil’s Sanctuary, North to Canada, and Yellow Fever. He was a staff writer at the Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News, the Commercial Appeal, the Delta Democrat-Times, the Greenwood Commonwealth, and the Tallahassee Democrat.

From Publishers Weekly:

While most Americans are familiar with the history of Japanese internment camps during WWII, few know the extent of America's racially-motivated internment. Dickerson seeks to offer readers a comprehensive history of American concentration camps and internment facilities but, while the book purports to cover two centuries of internment and abuse, it really only investigates WWII and the Trail of Tears. Dickerson highlights American abuse against native populations, and touches upon wartime internment not just of Japanese, but also of Jews, Italians, and Germans. His research includes a great number of heartbreaking stories; from Jewish immigrants who escaped the Nazis only to end up in American camps thanks to the low wartime immigration quotas, to Japanese orphans living on subsistence rations, these personal tales throw a vague chapter of the historical record into sharp relief. With economy and insight, Dickerson presents yesterday as a lesson for today and takes a close look at Guantanamo Bay and modern race relations between America and the Arab world. Readers unfamiliar with this history will likely be moved.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 155652806X
• ISBN 13: 9781556528064
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312