This course will focus on Asian American history from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Our aim will be to engage the longer history of Asian migration and labor in the United States. As such, we will focus on topics prior to the Immigration Act of 1924 (also sometimes known as the Asian Exclusion Act). We will explore how empire, capital, and labor informs the transnational movements of ideas, commodities, and people. Topics we will discuss include coolie labor, immigration exclusion, and U.S. empire. Readings and discussions will aim to think through how ideas of race, gender, and sexuality operate and change over time within these histories. Our readings will focus on monographs on Asian American history combined with primary sources.