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 possible sense--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 thematic structure, Kaleidoscope is an enjoyable and enlightening reader for anyone interested in American literature and history, or the new emphasis on multiculturalism.

George Perkins is editor of The American Tradition in Literature (Seventh Edition, 1990), the leading American literature survey text. George and Barbara Perkins are co-authors or co-editors of Contemporary American Literature (1988), The Reader's Encyclopedia of American literature (1991), and Women's Work: American Literature by Women (1994), and founders and editors of The Journal of Narrative Technique.