Muncie, India(na) : Middletown and Asian America / Himanee Gupta-Carlson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gupta-Carlson, Himanee, author.

Series:

Asian American experience

The Asian American experience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gupta-Carlson, Himanee.

Lynd, Robert Staughton, 1892-1970. Middletown.

Lynd, Robert Staughton.

South Asian Americans--Indiana--Muncie.

South Asian Americans.

Immigrants--Indiana--Muncie.

Immigrants.

Muncie (Ind.)--Ethnic relations.

Muncie (Ind.).

Muncie (Ind.)--Social conditions.

Muncie (Ind.)--Biography.

Indiana--Muncie.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 223 pages cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Summary:

Muncie, Indiana, remains the epitome of an American town. Yet scholars built the image of so-called typical communities across the United States on an illusion. Their decades of studies ignored the racial, ethnic, and religious diversity and tensions woven into the American communities that Muncie supposedly embodied. Himanee Gupta-Carlson puts forth an essential question: what do nonwhites, non-Christians, arid/or non-natives mean when they call themselves American? A daughter in one of Muncie's first Indian American families, Gupta-Carlson merges personal experience, the life histories of others, and critical analysis to explore the answers. Her stories of members of Muncie's South Asian communities unearth the silences imposed by past studies while challenging the body of scholarship in fundamental ways. At the same time, Gupta-Carlson shares personal memories and experiences that illuminate her place within the historical, political, and sociocultural currents she engages in her work. The narrative also reveals how that work informs and transforms her as a scholar and a person. As meditative as it is insightful, Muncie, India(na) invites readers to feel the truth of the fascinating stories behind one woman's revised portrait of an American community. Book jacket.

Contents:

Creating a typical America: the Middletown studies and Muncie

Marring typicality: South Asian immigrants in Muncie

Fitting in: Muncie South Asians and childhood

Navigating rebellion and respect: South Asian teenagers and high school life

Cowpath crossings: post-industrial work and Indian doctors

Knowing your place: religious identities and differences

Conclusion: race, religion, and the limits of tolerance

Epilogue: an unraveled America?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780252041822

0252041828

9780252083440

025208344X

OCLC:

993134440