from it. The perception of the Jarvik 7 as a failure
may have come from unrealistic expectations the
public had about the ability of science to perform
medical miracles and of technology to make incredi-
ble advances overnight. Thus, when an artificial
heart that did not require an external power source
was not immediately available, the press lost interest.
Further Reading
Burnette, Martha.The Bill Schroeder Stor y.New York:
Morrow, 1987. Biography of the second artificial-
Artificial heart
Elefteriades, John A., and Lawrence S. Cohen.Your
Heart: An Owner’s Guide. Amherst, N.Y.: Prome-
theus Books, 2007. Details the current under-
standing of cardiac science, including the heart’s
functioning, how to keep it healthy, and steps
taken by medical professionals to fight heart dis-
ease.
Fox, Renée C., and Judith P. Swazey.Spare Parts: Or-
gan Replacement in American Society. New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1992. Cultural history of or-
gan transplantation, tracing both its portrayal
and its reality in American society.
Hogness, John R., and Malin VanAntwerp.The Artifi-
cial Heart: Prototypes, Policies, and Patents.Washing-
ton, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1991. Useful
rundown of the state of the science of artificial
heart replacements at the end of the 1980’s.
Shaw, Margery.After Barney Clark: Reflections on the
Utah Artificial Heart Program.Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1984. A discussion of the University
of Utah’s program, written in the wake of the first
successful artificial heart implantation.
Nancy Farm Mannikko
See also Baby Fae heart transplantation; Bioengi-
neering; Medicine; Transplantation.
Asian Americans
Definition Americans of Japanese, Chinese,
Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, or
South Asian origin
The largest wave of immigration from any world region oc-
curred from Asia into United States during the 1980’s, re-
sulting in a major cultural transformation, particularly in
coastal U.S. regions. The assimilation process that followed
created unique cultural groups among Asian Americans.
While the territory of Asia extends from Turkey to
East Timor, in the context of migration patterns and
population data, South and East Asian nations span-
ning from Pakistan to the Philippines are seen as the
primary Asian emigrant regions.
During the late nineteenth century, the availabil-
ity of jobs in the lush farmlands of California’s cen-
tral valleys created a large immigration movement
from East Asia. Angel Island, located off the coast of
California, was the gateway of Asians entering Amer-
ica and remains an important national marker for
many Asian Americans. Japan and the United States
were bitter enemies in World War II, leading to the
internment of Japanese Americans. Since then, the
relationship between the United States and Asia
has evolved, and Asian Americans today contribute
greatly to America’s multicultural melting pot as a vi-
tal cultural group.Asian Americans in the 1980’s The 1980’s proved
to be one of the most important decades for Asian
Americans, as this period also helped transform the
cultural identity of the United States. Prior to that
decade, America’s deep political involvement with
Vietnam created a connection between the two na-
tions and resulted in significant migration from the
region. Pursuit of better standards of living, disen-
chantment with communist governance, and the
growth of a vibrant youth population seeking oppor-
tunities were some of the factors in this migration.
Furthermore, the 1980 Refugee Act enacted by
the U.S. Congress allowed people needing asylum
from their home nation because of political unrest
to seek protection in the United States. The act in-
spired many Asians to migrate to a more free society
in the United States. In particular, the Vietnamese
population in the United States saw a giant surge,
growing by more than 125 percent between 1980
and 1989, making it the largest immigrant group
landing on American shores. A major factor contrib-
uting to this surge was the Vietnamese Ameriasian
Homecoming Act passed by Congress in 1987, which
granted immigrant visas to all children born to
Americans in Vietnam between 1965 and 1975. The
term “Ameriasian” is used to denote Asians born in
their respective Asian nations with at least one Amer-
ican parent. The same term was also applied to chil-
dren born to Americans in Korea following the Ko-
rean War in the 1950’s. In the 1980’s, civil unrest and
unstable governments in the 1980’s prompted otherThe Eighties in America Asian Americans 73