The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in AmericaAmerican life is filled with talk of progress and equality, especially when the issue is that of race. But has the history of race in America really been the continuous march toward equality we'd like to imagine it has? This sweeping history of race in America argues quite the opposite: that progress toward equality has been sporadic, isolated, and surrounded by long periods of stagnation and retrenchment. "[An] unflinching portrait of the leviathan of American race relations. . . . This important book should be read by all who aspire to create a more perfect union."—Publishers Weekly, starred review "Could it be that our unswerving belief in the power of our core values to produce racial equality is nothing but a comforting myth? That is the main argument put forth by Philip Klinkner and Rogers Smith . . . The Unsteady March is disturbing because it calls into question our cherished national belief and does so convincingly. . . . [It] is beautifully written, and the social history it provides is illuminating and penetrating."—Aldon Morris, American Journal of Sociology Winner of the Horace Mann Bond Award of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University. |
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abolitionist administration affirmative action African Americans amendment Ameri army began bill Black Americans Black and White black soldiers black voting campaign Charles Francis Adams Chicago cities citizens claimed Clinton Cold Cold War color Congress Congressional conservative Constitution declared defense democracy Democratic desegregation economic efforts egalitarian Eisenhower election Emancipation federal government FEPC fight Foner forces foreign policy free blacks freedom Ibid immigration integration issue Jim Crow John Johnson Justice Kennedy leaders legislation liberal Lincoln lynchings ment military NAACP nation Negro North northern whites party percent Philip Randolph political poll President programs protect racial discrimination racial equality racial hierarchies racial violence racism Randolph Reconstruction reform Republican Revolution Rights Act riots Roosevelt segregation Senate Sitkoff slavery slaves social South Carolina Supreme Court Thernstrom tion told troops Truman Union United University Press voters W. E. B. Du Bois Washington white Americans white supremacy World World War II wrote York