“Part biography, part autobiography, part conversation and dialogue between two good friends and academic colleagues, this is old-fashioned ethnography and good storytelling undergirded by strong doses of theorizing regarding home, nation, nation-state, nationalism, citizenship, immigration, diasporas, borders, transborders, transnationals, subalterns, and racism—all wrapped around a new paradigm called ‘long distance nationalism.’ . . . All levels and collections.” — E. Hu-DeHart , Choice
“Written to be accessible to those outside academia, this work lays out some of the key issues in transnational migrations, while at the same time offering an insightful analysis of globalization and its effects on notions of nation, race, and belonging.” — Virginia Quarterly Review
"Georges Woke Up Laughing provides a richly textured, compelling account of Haitian transnational migration. . . . This book makes a major contribution. . . . Like all good research, this study also raises many questions as well as answers. . . . We learn a great deal about how migrants and those who stay behind think about themselves, what they do about it, and how the state shapes these dynamics." — Peggy Levitt , American Journal of Sociology
"Georges Woke Up Laughing is a tour de force of contemporary ethnographic and anthropological practice." — Mike Evans , Journal of International Migration and Integration
"[A] fascinating read. . . . I . . . highly recommend this work to anyone working on or interested in immigrant/globalization/transnational/diaspora issues. For folklorists especially, this is a great example of how the use of ethnography and folklore can make a complicated topic so much more engaging." — A. Jade Alburo, Ethnologies
"[T]his fascinating study offers revealing insights into the world of Haitian Americans." — Lester P. Lee Jr., Journal of American Ethnic History
"[T]his powerful study is welcome and pathbreaking." — Laura A. Lewis , American Ethnologist
"Glick Schiller and Fouron provide inspired renderings of the complexities of the contemporary period and its historical antecedents. Their ethnographically rich accounts challenge those theorists who claim that states are becoming increasingly irrelevant in today's world. . . . [An] extremely nuanced account of the ways that both nationalist projects and transnational circulations are embodied and realized through race, class, and gender." — Deborah A. Thomas , Identities
“Nina Glick Schiller and Georges Eugene Fouron do a masterful job of describing the full spectrum of factors shaping the experience of migration, ranging from utopian dreams of the home country to the hard reality that some states are only apparent states. This is a work of inspired ethnographic research, stunning scholarship, and creative grace and energy.” — Karen McCarthy Brown, author of Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn