The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945

The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945. By Marc Gallicchio. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. xiv, 262 pp. Cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-- 8078-2559-X. Paper, $17.95, ISBN 0-8078-- 4867-0.)

The burgeoning interest in African American activism in international relations has generated new work on the subject. Marc Gallicchin's study of black perspectives on China and Japan is among the latest contributions to this literature. Gallicchio identifies an African American constituency he calls "the Black Internationale." His thesis is that "black internationalism," heavily premised on a racialized world view, failed accurately to interpret many foreign issues for black audiences and, as a practical strategy, had little tangible policy impact and reaped few benefits for blacks as a constituency.

Despite the subtitle, the Russo-Japanese War is the book's...