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Title: The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America by Philip A. Klinkner, Rogers M. Smith ISBN: 0226443396 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5
Rating: 5
Summary: Up the down escalator
Comment: Highly interesting and useful book with a simple but effective history: put the whole history of civil rights struggle in one line, since the Revolutionary war. The result shows immediately the tiding of the struggle for racial equality, and the correlation of eras of advance with the periods of major war, the Revolutionary, Civil, and Second World Wars to be exact. Too often we see the efforts of abolitionists in the generation before the Civil War without seeing the similar history during the Revolutionary period, and then the falling away of advance into retrogression in the early nineteenth century. And then again after Reconstruction. The rise of the Civil Rights movement after the Second World War, next also to the need to repair the image of the American system in the Cold War, falls into place therefore as the next incremental advance in an undertow of resistance, backsliding and the Jim Crow curse. We seem to be, or have entered, another of the doldrum eras, and the prospect seems alarming, although each period of advance maintains some portion of its gains. At a period of neo-liberal machinations made in Texas we need hardly bother to wonder why affirmative action is under attack, etc...
One has to wonder, finally, at the botched legacy of the Constitutional era. It seems less than fully convincing all at once that the founders were unable to resist compromise. The results have been a horrendous series of obstructions.
As the dot.gov goes into action in Iraq, it is worth wondering if they are qualified. American history shows one way to blow it. Vigilance.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Very accurate depiction of Race relations
Comment: When I read this book, I was surprised to find a almost completely accurate depiction of the African-American experience and race relations. Klikner and Smith validate the claim of Black separatist groups such as the Nation of Islam that the Black man is considered a citizen during wartime and tax time. Their analyzing of race relations during The American Revolution, The Civil War, World War II, and The Cold War show that the status of African-Americans was changed by each war. However the nation took 2 steps back when the attitudes of the White majority changed during hard economic times and developed a reluctance to expand the social revolution that was spurred by the war. The book offers a challenge to all who desire racial and economic equality to continue a unfinished social revolution.
Rating: 5
Summary: One step forward, two steps back
Comment: Civil Rights leaders supposedly described their achievements in these terms and thus give the authors the title for their book. Such footwork can only be described as THE UNSTEADY MARCH. Klinker and Smith highlight the periods of progress and retreat through a broad sweep of US history. Beginning with the era of slavery (1619-1860), chapter 1 titled "Bolted with the Lock of a Hundred Keys" obviously describes a period of zero progress. According to the authors there have only been three periods of progress and each can be identified by the presence of specific factors. The thrust of their argument throughout this book is that the special circumstances and the effort, energy, and enthusiasm associated with these factors has both a beneficial and deleterious impact on black progress. Beneficially these are not short-run periods of gain. Indeed the third era of progress beginning with WWII and covering the Cold War (inclusive of Vietnam) from 1941 to 1968 "framed an extraordinarily prolonged period" of gains.
It's not coincidental that this period included WWII, the Cold War, and Vietnam because progress has come only "in the wake of a large-scale war requiring extensive economic and military mobilization of African-Americans for success." This statement by the authors made me think about the message of AMERICAN PATRIOTS: "The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm". If gains by blacks is conditional on wars the treatment of blacks in those wars is a high cost to pay for progress as Gail Lumet Buckley shows in her book. Gaining support for these wars usually means invoking our inclusiveness, egalitarianism, and democratic ideals; elements which the authors identify as another precondition for progress. The third critical factor is that a political protest movement must emerge and be "willing and able to bring pressure upon national leaders to live up to that justificatory rhetoric by instituting domestic reforms."
Progress has been a continual dance of advances and retreats but in their penultimate chapter "Benign Neglect?" the authors express concern over the current climate of complacency. Rather than a threat from any direct action or program of retrenchment, acceptance of present trends is a far greater impediment to continued progress. Through a series of parallels with periods of increased segregation they make a compelling case for overturning the historical pattern and replacing it with a movement towards sustained economic justice and racial equality.
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Title: Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past (American Crossroads, 10) by David R. Roediger ISBN: 0520233417 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Racism: A Short History by George M. Fredrickson ISBN: 069100899X Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality by Tali Mendelberg ISBN: 0691070717 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Ironies of Affirmative Action: Politics, Culture, and Justice in America (Morality and Society) by John David Skrentny ISBN: 0226761789 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History by Rogers M. Smith ISBN: 0300078773 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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