History on the Run: Secrecy, Fugitivity, and Hmong Refugee Epistemologies (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781478011316)

During its secret war in Laos (1961-1975), the United States recruited proxy soldiers among the Hmong people. Following the war, many of these Hmong soldiers migrated to the United States with refugee status. In History on the Run Ma Vang examines the experiences of Hmong refugees in the United States to theorize refugee histories and secrecy, in particular those of the Hmong. Vang conceptualizes these histories as fugitive histories, as they move and are carried by people who move. Charting the incomplete archives of the war made secret through redacted US state documents, ethnography, film, and literature, Vang shows how Hmong refugees tell their stories in ways that exist separately from narratives of U.S. empire and that cannot be traditionally archived. In so doing, Vang outlines a methodology for writing histories that foreground refugee epistemologies despite systematic attempts to silence those histories.

Author: Ma Vang
ISBN-10: 1478011319
ISBN-13: 9781478011316
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/12/2021
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.57d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2021