The Capitalist World-System and the Making of the American Working Class

A review essay on Labor Immigration under Capitalism: Asian Workers in the United States before World War II (Cheng, Lucie, & Bonacich, Edna [Eds], Berkeley: U of California Press, 1984 [see IRPS No. 29/85a38167]). Immigration of Asian labor to the US before WWII is described from a world-system perspective, based on contradictions between capital & labor, & between core & periphery. While this theoretical analysis is highly stimulating, it has certain flaws & is inadequately integrated with the empirical data, which are presented in chapters that do not form a coherent whole, despite their individual merits. 3 References. W. H. Stoddard.