Shame, Alex Tizon tells us, is universal--his own happened to be about race. To counteract the steady diet of American television and movies that taught Tizon to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height, he turned outward ("I had to educate myself on my own worth. It was a sloppy, piecemeal education, but I had to do it because no one else was going to do it for me."). Tizon illuminates historical figures who had and still have no place in American history books or classrooms; he delivers the unheard stories of young Asian men today; and he tracks the rise of powerful, dynamic Asian...