I recently began a paper dealing with a civil rights topic. While researching, I became interested in the Japanese internment of the 1940's. Although much can be learned about the internment from articles and other books, the pictures in this book are "worth 1,000 words." They photographs give a clear understanding of what life in the camps must have been like. I highly reccomend this book to history buffs, photography buffs, and those interested in civil rights issues.

Enjoy

Michael Cooper's Slave Spirituals And The Jubilee Singers provides a revealing history of the music which reflected the hopes and despairs of slavery. The Jubilee Singers embarked on a tour to raise money for their struggling school and succeeded in not only achieving personal fame, but bringing slave spirituals to the world. Archival prints and photos are included in this inspirational account.

Michael Cooper's book "Fighting for Honor" provides insight into the treatment of Japanese Americans before, during and after World War II. The status and treatment of Asians in the U.S. and especially on the West coast is discussed in the early portion of the book. As for other portions of the book, this should be educational for children not familiar with the history of that time. Mr. Cooper does an excellent job in describing the resettlement of Japanese Americans at the beginning of the war along with a map showing the War Relocation Authority Camps. Throughout the book, Mr. Cooper attemps to describe the thinking and mood of the Japanese Americans. There are good examples of the exploits of Japanese American soldiers fighting for the U.S. during the war and a sad chapter describing the welcome the troops received after returning from the war. Throughout the book there are very good photographs illustrating the subject being discussed. This is an excellent history book for children describing the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The Indian Boarding School is one of the most horrific ideas anyone could have come up with to rid them selves of people. Children, often at very young ages, were taken, sometimes kidnapped, to a school far from their homes and families. As if this wasn't enough they were not allowed to speak their own languages, wear their own clothing, and practice traditions that had been in their cultures for countless generations. They were forced to become Christians, forced to speak English, and forced to wear Victorian-style clothing, and many more things. If they broke a rule they were severly punished. We are still feeling the affects of this today. Many tribes have or nearly have lost their language and traditions, and with them their sense of being unique. Of course none of this is told in Michael L. Cooper's "Indian School: Teaching the White Man's Way."
Mr Cooper wrote, "When they were teenagers Native Americans married, had children and went on the warpath." But Mr. Cooper fails to mention that many cultures married and had children as teenagers. They had to, life expectancy was so short, if they didn't they would die out. Many cultures still marry as teens today. It wasn't until just a few decades ago that many people stopped doing this.
And not all Native Americans thought the Black Hills were "the holiest spot on earth." I mean really in pre-Columbian times North America was covered with indigenous peoples, it is very hard to belive that all of them thought that the Black Hills were/are sacred.
I could go on and on about this book but the review has a maximum of 1,000 words so I will cut it short. This book stinks! I do not recommend it. Mr. Cooper could researched a lot better. I hope this book is never used as a reference to Indian Boarding School life. Thank You for your time.

this book is awful. we are not called indians. We are native americans. this book has so many stereotypes. My grandmother was taken from her family when she was 7 years old. she did not see her family until she was 16 years old. i am truly afended by this book because i am a native american and my family did go through the bording school era. All i have to say is that Michael L. Cooper should have researched more and thought about how we would be afected by this book.

This absorbing book addresses the issue of cultural imperialism in thoughtful ways. It explores how federally-funded schools sought to teach "the white man's ways" to Native Americans children in the late-nineteeenth and early twentieth century. Balanced and sensitive to the past, Cooper acknowledges that the teachers generally had good intentions and opened opportunities for some students. Thre is even a delightful chapter on "Pop" Warner's successful football program a the school in Carlisle PA. Yet, without resorting to heavy-handed editorializing, the author uses the evidence to establish that the inability to accept cultural differences harmed the youths. Cooper does an outstanding job telling the story from the students' point of view. The photographs of daily life at the school are wonderful. Rich in personal details, Indian School will engage young readers.