Multiculturalism: The Manifest Destiny of the U.S.A.--An Interview with Ronald Takaki

This article presents an interview with Ronald Takaki, a prolific and respected author and a successful teacher who wrote a number of important histories that explore the cultural diversity of the United States of America, including "From Different Shores: Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America" (1994), "Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans" (1998), and the recently revised "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America" (2008), a groundbreaking work originally published in 1993. Dr. Takaki taught the first African American history course at the University of California, Los Angeles before developing undergraduate and graduate programs in comparative ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. An activist as well as a scholar, he frequently appeared on national television to discuss and defend Affirmative Action, immigrant rights, and other cultural diversity initiatives. Dr. Takaki died in May 2009. In the interview, Dr. Takaki spoke not only of his own multicultural background and his interdisciplinary research and teaching approach, but also related some of the little known historical facts and stories he uncovered through his research.