History on the Run

Ma Vang is Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced, and coeditor of Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women.

“Ma Vang seeks out those places where secrets lie, not to reveal them but to consider their social force as archives and cosmologies of knowledge and power. Pursuing a wide range of inquiries that contribute to larger questions about historiography, ‘official’ histories, refugees, and ex-allies of U.S. foreign ventures, History on the Run is an important and necessary interdisciplinary feat. Stunningly original and thoroughly provocative, it is the most compelling book in refugee studies in years.” - Mimi Thi Nguyen, author of (The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages) “In this rigorous and significant work Ma Vang shifts our broader understandings of the connections among state secrecy, racial and colonial war, and refugee subjectivities. By refusing to engage in a simple recovery project or to reveal hidden secrets, Vang offers instead a sophisticated analysis of the structuring logic, function, and effects of state secrecy that demonstrates that it is is liberal military empire's norm, not its exception.” - Jodi Kim, author of (Ends of Empire: Asian American Critique and the Cold War) "...History on the Run is a must read for those who are looking to expand their knowledge in this field and/or wanting to learn more about Hmong refugees." - Doua Kha (International Examiner) "Vang’s book contributes to larger conversations occurring within history about the value and machinations of historiography and its implications on human geographical mobility and minoritarian subjectivity. In essence, Vang’s magisterial book is a field-defining and paradigm-shifting work in critical ethnic and critical refugee studies." - Kong Pheng Pha (Society and Space) "Vang's book . . . truly marks a turn in Hmong studies, one that demands complexity and rigor, and asks its readers to think critically about Hmong knowledge and about how academia sustains white supremacy." - Aline Lo (Lateral) "As an interdisciplinary scholar, Vang strings together data and theories from various fields, resulting in a multilayered, complex work. Therefore, academics and students from multiple disciplines can all find it relevant and rewarding from different angles. . . . The book presents a powerful voice to retell the refugee’s 'history on the run,' one that defies traditional archiving and encapsulates a rich body of knowledge to destabilize imperialist projects." - Chi Yen Ha (Journal of Asian Studies) "Vang’s book is captivating. Her focus on Amerasian studies allows her to theorize refugee epistemologies in a specific international context (US, Hmong, and Laos connectivities) while still offering new theoretical insights to refugee studies of other inter-/national contexts. As such, the value of her work to refugee studies and ethnic studies is undeniable." - Miriam Jaehn (Pacific Affairs)

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction. The Lost Bag and the Refugee Archive  11. Secrecy as Knowledge  272. Missing Things: State Secrets and U.S. Cold War Policy toward Laos  573. The Refugee Soldier: A Critique of Recognition and Citizenship in the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 1997  934. The Terrorist Ally: The Case against General Vang Pao  1175. The Refugee Grandmother: Silence as Presence in The Latehomecomer and Gran Torino  145Epilogue. Geographic Stories for Refugee Return  179Notes  189Bibliography  231Index  251