Kaleidoscope Stories of the American Experience

This innovative multicultural reader gathers together diaries, histories, autobiographies, short stories, and excerpts from novels to bring the many facets of the American experience to life, from sixteenth-century explorations to this century's ongoing saga of immigration and acculturation.Extending the traditional boundaries of the American literary canon, the editors first offer a comprehensive overview of the history of multicultural social and literary patterns in the United States, and then present a wealth of richly diverse stories--construing that term in the broadest possiblesense--from both celebrated and lesser-known authors emphasizing pluralistic experience. Whenever possible, they present narratives of cross-cultural contact and exchange, rather than reports of cultures observed in isolation. Offering a uniquely broad range of readings within a strong thematicstructure, Kaleidoscope is an enjoyable and enlightening reader for anyone interested in American literature and history, or the new emphasis on multiculturalism.Perkins, Barbara is the author of 'Kaleidoscope Stories of the American Experience', published 1993 under ISBN 9780195072228 and ISBN 0195072227.