| Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs Contributor(s): Roediger, David R. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1541673476 ISBN-13: 9781541673472 Publisher: Basic Books OUR PRICE: $17.09 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - Social Science | Emigration & Immigration - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General |
| Dewey: 305.800 |
| LCCN: 2019393539 |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 5.5" W x 8.2" (0.68 lbs) 368 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: How did immigrants to the United States come to see themselves as white? David R. Roediger has been in the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history for decades. He first came to prominence as the author of The Wages of Whiteness, a classic study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, Roediger continues that history into the twentieth century. He recounts how ethnic groups considered white today-including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans-were once viewed as undesirables by the WASP establishment in the United States. They eventually became part of white America, through the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. Once assimilated as fully white, many of them adopted the racism of those whites who formerly looked down on them as inferior. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants-the real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods-Roediger explores the mechanisms by which immigrants came to enjoy the privileges of being white in America. A disturbing, necessary, masterful history, Working Toward Whiteness uses the past to illuminate the present. In an Introduction to the 2018 edition, Roediger considers the resonance of the book in the age of Trump, showing how Working Toward Whiteness remains as relevant as ever even though most migrants today are not from Europe. |