The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California () is a 1975 labor and California history book by Alexander Saxton which became one of the founding texts of Asian American studies. The book has been described as "represent[ing] the best example of writing in the historical materialist tradition within Asian American Studies"S Kurashige, "Beyond Random Acts of Hatred: Analyzing Urban Patterns of Anti-Asian Violence", Amerasia Journal (2000). and "[t]he model of historical writing" that discusses the "history of workers and racism", including both interracial "unity but also the limits of that unity."David Roediger, "History Making and Politics", International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, v.2, n.3, pp.371-372 (emphasis in the original).
Notes
Further reading Alexander Saxton, "The Indispensable Enemy and Ideological Construction: Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Radical", Amerasia Journal, v.26, n.1, pp. 86–101 (2000). R. W. Rydell, "Grand Crossings: The Life and Work of Alexander Saxton", Pacific Historical Review (2004)