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This title in other editionseBook editionsWorking Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became Whiteby David R Roediger
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:At the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history, David Roediger is one of the most highly respected scholars in his field. He is also the author of the now-classic The Wages of Whiteness, a study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, he continues that history into the twentieth century, recounting how American ethnic groups that are considered white today, such as Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans, once occupied a confused racial status in their new country.While some historians have claimed that these immigrants were “white on arrival,” Roediger paints a very different picture, showing that it wasnt until the 1920s (ironically, just when immigration laws became much more restrictive), that these ethnic groups definitively became part of white America, primarily thanks to the nascent labor movement and a rise in home-buying.From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants —the real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods—Working Toward Whiteness explores the murky realities of race in twentieth-century America. In this masterful history, which is sure to be a key text in its field, David Roediger charts the strange transformation of these new immigrants into the “white ethnics” of America today. Review:"Too much recent scholarship 'simply ignores the long, circuitous process by which 'new immigrants' became 'white ethnics,' ' declares Roediger (The Wages of Whiteness), finding that the process in the early 20th century was slower and messier. Well-detailed examples include Greeks and Italians victimized by white mobs at the turn of the century (with the Chicago papers providing the parenthetical identification 'Italian' in crime stories just as they did 'Negro'). Jobs, Roediger finds, were often divided on lines that separated whites from European immigrants, but unions opened to European immigrants more readily than to blacks, Mexican-Americans and Asian-Americans. Most significantly, he sees the oppression faced by Europeans as qualitatively different than that faced by other groups and goes into painful detail. Roediger hearkens back to the 1924 immigration restrictions, showing how they drove the 'great migration' of African-Americans northward, thus rendering immigrants less 'foreign' to some entrenched whites. Reinforcing that were the immigrant drive for home ownership, backed by New Deal — era restrictive racial covenants and laws against interracial marriage. While slow going, Roediger's book tills some major historical ground. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:Roediger recounts how American ethnic groups that are considered white today, such as Jewish, Italian-, and Polish-Americans, once occupied a confused racial status in their new country. About the Author David R. Roediger teaches on the history of race and class in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is the Babcock Chair of History and of African American Studies. He lives in Champaign, Illinois. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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