Violeta Danic, who was born and raised in America by Croatian immigrants, is a graduate of De La Salle University. Her parents are Croatian and Bosnian and she was adopted and raised by Americans. She was a National Air Force Officer and later worked as an intelligence analyst for the United States Department of Defense. In her role as an intelligence analyst, she was assigned to the Middle East as an Arabic translator in the Office of Public Affairs. When she left the military, she pursued a Master’s Degree in American Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Her thesis was a critical analysis of how certain nationalities and groups relate to one another, their cultural definitions and their familial relationships. She claims that there are six core nationalities or groups in the United States: German, Czech, Bosnian, Iranian, Filipino, and Croatian. Within these core nationalities, there are a multitude of minor nationalities such as Yomi Native American, Chinese, Japanese and other Pacific Islanders. Her book is a socio-cultural analysis that examines the intersections of identity, politics and ethnicity in the United States. This is part of a larger body of work that seeks to understand American national identities as they interact with each other and culture.
The book discusses how ethnicity and nationality are treated in the United States. It then goes on to compare these two concepts in contemporary life and how these relate to each other. The book ends with a case study of two American siblings who are separated by a large distance and one is from a predominantly African American background while the other is a Hispanic. They both experience similar barriers to reaching their potential in life. This case study beautifully illustrates how the concept of nationality is handled by the American government and how these rules affect individuals. This work is very timely and I highly recommend it.