Strangers from a Different Shore

Ronald Takaki (1939-2009) was an American historian from Oahu, Hawaii. After studying history at the College of Wooster in Ohio, Takaki completed his Masters and PhD degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. Takaki showed an early interest in the history of ethnic minorities in America, as his PhD thesis analyzed the arguments used to justify slavery. After graduating with his PhD in 1967 he began teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and later returned to the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, where he taught until 2003. Takaki taught courses on Black American history, Asian American history, and racial inequality in America, among other topics. Takaki was renowned on campus for the popularity of his lectures, as students enthusiastically signed up for his courses in large numbers. Another of Takaki’s main accomplishments was the development of Ethnic Studies as a discipline at Berkeley, making it the first program of its kind at a US university.

During his decades-long career as a professor, Takaki began writing and editing books on American history, helping to pioneer new histories of the US that focused on ethnic minorities. These included A Pro-Slavery Crusade: The Agitation to Reopen the African Slave Trade (1973), Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th Century America (1979), Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii (1983), and A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), among others.