Special Sorrows

"A scholarly study of the real roots of what Jacobson calls 'America's largely assimilated but ultimately "unmeltable" ethics.' It's a startling point of view for readers who are accustomed to the self-congratulatory myth of America as a beacon of liberty to which the 'huddled masses' of the world look with longing."—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

Matthew Frye Jacobson is Professor of American Studies at Yale University and author of Whiteness of a Different Color (1998) and Barbarian Virtues (2000).

Note on Usage
Foreword by David Roediger
Introduction: The Diasporic Imagination

I. THE CULTURE OF THE DIASPORA
1. Exiles, Pilgrims, Wanderers: Migration in the Context of National Struggle
2. Plaintive Song, Heroic Story: Nationalism and Immigrant Popular Culture
3. Pillars of Fire: The Comparative Literatures of Immigrant Nationalism

II. NATIONALIST SENSIBILITY AND AMERICAN EXPANSIONISM
4. Cuba Libre! Immigrant Versions of Spanish Tyranny, Cuban Rights, and American Power
5. Windows on Imperialism: Nationalism, Race, and the Conquest of the Philippines

Conclusion: The Diasporic Imagination in the Twentieth Century
Afterword to the 2002 Edition
Glossary of Names
Notes
Index