Seattle from the Margins: Exclusion, Erasure, and the Making of a Pacific Coast City

Seattle's urban workforce from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War II was predominantly migrant laborers, who were depicted as troublesome and impediments to urban progress. Megan Asaka's book Seattle from the Margins reveals how migrant laborers worked alongside each other, competed over jobs, and forged unexpected alliances in the marine and coastal spaces of the Puget Sound, offering a deeper understanding of the city's complex past.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 27 September 2022
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Seattle's urban workforce, from its mid-nineteenth-century origins to the onset of World War II, was predominantly composed of migrant laborers who drove the seasonal, extractive economy of the Pacific Northwest. While the city reaped benefits from this mobile labor force, consisting largely of Indigenous peoples and Asian migrants, municipal authorities, elites, and reformers consistently portrayed these workers and the spaces they inhabited as troublesome and hindrances to urban progress. Today, the physical landscape bears little evidence of their historical presence.

To unravel the hidden histories of Seattle, Seattle from the Margins delves into unheralded sites such as labor camps, lumber towns, lodging houses, and so-called slums. By exploring these overlooked corners, the book reveals how migrant laborers collaborated, competed for jobs, and formed unexpected alliances within the marine and coastal spaces of the Puget Sound. Through this lens, Megan Asaka offers a profound understanding of Seattle's complex past, challenging prevailing narratives and highlighting the significance of marginalized groups in shaping the city's development.

This project was made possible in part by a grant from the 4Cultures Heritage Program.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295750675