Fumiko Hosokawa is chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

This unique book is designed to inform potential field researchers about the history of power and exploitation that characterizes many minority populations living in the US. Taking her 'back yard' as a trial ground, sociologist Hosokawa (California State Univ., Dominguez Hills) aptly reviews, briefly, the history of oppression and research exploitation of African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Samoans. Given her unique location in southern California, she includes detailed accounts of several Asian groups, including Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Koreans, Filipino/as, Cambodians, Laotians (including Hmong), and Vietnamese. This is certainly a unique aspect to her book, which she readily admits is best used in tandem with other primary texts on field research. Hosokawa's purpose is to acquaint potential researchers with the pitfalls that may befall them when they enter minority communities with a history of oppression and exploitation. An excellent book for methods collections in the social and behavioral sciences and useful for US ethnic studies. Essential.

• 1 Table of Contents2 PrefaceChapter 3 1. IntroductionChapter 4 2. Basic Guidelines for Doing FieldworkChapter 5 3. Supervision and the Ethics of Doing FieldworkChapter 6 4. The Fieldwork ExperienceChapter 7 5. Ethnic Groups and CommunitiesChapter 8 6. Southeast Asians and VietnameseChapter 9 7. African AmericansChapter 10 8. Japanese AmericansChapter 11 9. Mexican AmericansChapter 12 10. Samoan AmericansChapter 13 11. Building TrustChapter 14 About the Author15 Index