Overview

Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger's widely acclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explained simply with reference to economic advantage; rather, white working-class racism is underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforce racial stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks. In an afterword to this new edition, Roediger discusses recent studies of whiteness and the changing face of labor itself. He surveys criticism of his work, accepting many objections whilst challenging others, especially the view that the study of working class racism implies a rejection of Marxism and radical politics.

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9781859842409

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Reviews

At last an American labor historian realizes that white workers have a racial identity that matters as race matters to workers who are not white. -- Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University. A Timely and important intervention I the current debates over 'race' and ethnicity. - Catherine Hall, New Left Review. Roediger's exciting book makes us understand what it means to see oneself as white in a new way. An extremely important and insightful book. - Lawrence Glickman, The Nation. The Celestine Prophesy of whiteness studies - SPLN

Author Information

David Roediger is widely credited as a founder of Critical Whiteness Studies. He writes as a historian and interdisciplinary scholar of race and labor in the US. Educated in public schools and in social movements, his major books include Wages of Whiteness, Seizing Freedom, and How Race Survived US History.

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