From South Africa in the nineteenth century to Hong Kong today; nations around the world; including the United States; have turned to guestworker programs to manage migration. These temporary labor recruitment systems represented a state-brokered compromise between employers who wanted foreign workers and those who feared rising numbers of immigrants. Unlike immigrants; guestworkers couldn't settle; bring their families; or become citizens; and they had few rights. Indeed; instead of creating a manageable form of migration; guestworker programs created an especially vulnerable class of labor. Based on a vast array of sources from U.S.; Jamaican; and English archives; as well as interviews; No Man's Land tells the history of the American "H2" program; the world's second oldest guestworker program. Since World War II; the H2 program has brought hundreds of thousands of mostly Jamaican men to the United States to do some of the nation's dirtiest and most dangerous farmwork for some of its biggest and most powerful agricultural corporations; companies that had the power to import and deport workers from abroad. Jamaican guestworkers occupied a no man's land between nations; protected neither by their home government nor by the United States. The workers complained; went on strike; and sued their employers in class action lawsuits; but their protests had little impact because they could be repatriated and replaced in a matter of hours. No Man's Land puts Jamaican guestworkers' experiences in the context of the global history of this fast-growing and perilous form of labor migration.
#1872811 in Books 2011-11-27Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.30 x .80 x 6.10l; .92 #File Name: 0691151482192 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. How the western world began.By William J. ConklinA very scholarly review of the origins of Western civilization. I have organized a study group to explore its implications.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy Gerald HealyInsightful and thought provoking.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Challenging; But RewardingBy Diana WuegerFounding Gods isn't an easy read - it's very much an academic work; and assumes a degree of familiarity with the history of several early civilizations - but it's rewarding; and very much worth the read.Caveat lector: you need a dictionary handy - there are many; many Big Words; some of which Will may have made up (probably not) (maybe). You may wish to have Wikipedia close by as well; unless you're already very familiar with the histories of most early civilizations. Also; I recommend reading this backwards - read the book's conclusion first; then go back to Chapter 1 and read the conclusion of that; then read the full chapter; etc. Founding Gods is short but dense; and it's easy to get caught up in the details and lose sight of the broader arguments. This is Serious Academic Stuff; though McCants does use the phrase "new kids on the Mediterranean block" and makes a sly reference to "winter is coming" (p. 15) (apparently the ancient conception of that idea requires people to build greenhouses; not armies and fortresses - see; you'll learn things!).McCants' central idea - that elites used their interpretations of the origins of culture and civilization to shape their political; social; and intellectual environment - seems fundamentally reasonable. I personally have no basis of knowledge from which to evaluate his scholarship or evidence as presented; but if the origins of a cultural artifact or technai do matter; then it's logical to assume that elites will interpret or modify those origins to suit their needs as he describes. In antiquity; the question of whether a technology or type of knowledge was human-derived (and therefore less acceptable and possibly sinful) or taught to humans by a divine being (and therefore assumed to be beneficial to humanity) was worthy of debate; because the origin of the technology determined the acceptability of its pursuit or study. There are modern parallels to suggest that origins continue to matter - see [...] for that argument; plus a few additional thoughts on Founding Gods.Overall; Founding Gods is a neat little piece of scholarship; and I highly recommend it.
