Ira Katznelson
When Affirmative Action Was White
An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America
A groundbreaking work that exposes the twisted origins of affirmative action.
In this “penetrating new analysis” (New York Times Book Review) Ira Katznelson fundamentally recasts our understanding of twentieth-century American history and demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. Through mechanisms designed by Southern Democrats that specifically excluded maids and farm workers, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity. In the words of noted historian Eric Foner, “Katznelson’s incisive book should change the terms of debate about affirmative action, and about the last seventy years of American history.”
“A fresh, highly readable, first-rate history of public policy that gives us new insights and arguments for addressing . . . undemocratic gaps of income and wealth.”—Sanford D. Horowitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“Katznelson’s explosive analysis provides us with a new and painful understanding of how politics and race intersect.”—Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Ira Katznelson is the Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University and chair of the Russell Sage Foundation’s board of trustees. He lives in New York City.
|
|
