Focusing primarily on New York City's Chinatown in the 1930s and '40s, but looking back to the 1840's arrival of Chinese immigrants in America, Peter Kwong documents the turbulent history of Chinese labour in America. Kwong demonstrates how, excluded from craft unions and gradually driven into urban ghettos, the Chinese settled into a narrow range of jobs, where the merchant elite was able to control the workforce. But in the 1930s, as more industrial jobs became available, new organizations, aided by labour and leftist groups, arose to challenge the existing power structure. In the 1950s, though, as the political climate in the US changed, integration was halted and traditional associations reasserted their rule.