Synopses & Reviews
"In his study of Atlanta over the last 60 years, Kevin Kruse convincingly describes the critical connections between race, Sun Belt suburbanization, the rise of the new Republican majority.
White Flight is a powerful and compelling book that should be read by anyone interested in modern American politics and post-World War II urban history."
--Dan Carter, University of South Carolina"White Flight is a myth-shattering book. Focusing on the city that prided itself as 'too busy to hate,' Kevin Kruse reveals the everyday ways that middle-class whites in Atlanta resisted civil rights, withdrew from the public sphere, and in the process fashioned a new, grassroots, suburban-based conservatism. This important book has national implications for our thinking about the links between race, suburbanization, and the rise of the New Right."--Thomas J. Sugrue, Kahn Professor of History and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis
"This is an imaginative work that ably treats an important subject. Kruse gets beyond and beneath Atlanta's image as a place of racial moderation, the national center of the civil rights movement, and a seedbed of black political power to reveal other simultaneous, important currents at work."--Clifford Kuhn, Georgia State University
"Kevin Kruse recasts our understanding of the conservative resistance to the civil rights movement. Shifting the spotlight from racial extremists to ordinary white urban dwellers, he shows that "white flight" to the suburbs was among the most powerful social movements of our time. That movement not only reconfigured the urban landscape, it also transformed political ideology, laying the groundwork for the rise of the New Right and undermining the commitment of white Americans to the common good. No one can read this book and come away believing that the politics of suburbia are colorblind."--Jacquelyn Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Review
Kevin Kruse has written an informative history of Atlanta's postwar racial revolution. This case study of one city has far wider implications. The book is engaging because the story is told, in large part, from a white, grassroots perspective. This study also raises issues of major interest to racially conscious European Americans.
Review
"In White Flight, a study of white resistance to desegregation in Atlanta, Kruse produces a panoramic and engaging portrayal of the struggle over desegregation."--Ronald Brownstein, American Prospect
Review
"An ambitious, well-researched, and interesting study, White Flight offers a provocative examination of the connections between race and conservative politics."--Jeff Roche, Journal of American History
Review
Kruse presents a nuanced portrayal of the trends that fostered the growth of the suburbs and the casting aside of racist demagoguery. Jeff Roche - Journal of American History
Review
White Flight provides a detailed yet fascinating history of right-wing backlash against the civil rights movement that has relevance not only for historians but also for political scientists. Kevin Kruse's study deserves a wide reading. Jonathan Tilove - Times-Picayune
Review
In his book, Kevin Kruse analyzes the ideology accompanying white flight and its ongoing impact on American politics. . . . In a beautifully written, clearly structured, and deeply researched narrative, Kruse lays out the historical processes that led to the development of modern conservatism. R. Claire Snyder - New Political Science
Review
Kruse's ultimate success lies in using history to answer contemporary political questions, and without compromising his professional standards. Kristen O'Hare - Urban History Review
Review
In Kruse's skillful hands, Atlanta's struggle over integration takes on many of the characteristics of low-level urban warfare. . . . Kruse illuminates a key phase in American political development. Clay Risen - Nashville Scene
Review
Kruse provides a useful resource in the debate over the significance of race in politics. His book is thoroughly researched and well written. Students interested in modern politics and Civil Rights histories alike would greatly benefit from this work. Kimberley S. Johnson - Perspectives on Politics
Review
Co-Winner of the 2007 Best Book Award, Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association
Winner of the 2007 Francis B. Simkins Award, Southern Historical Association
Winner of the 2007 Malcolm Bell, Jr., and Muriel Barrow Bell Award for the Best Book in Georgia History, Georgia Historical Society
Review
andldquo;In this sobering new book Highsmith tracks the fall of Flint, Michigan, once one of the nationandrsquo;s greatest industrial towns, now one of its poorest cities. But this isnandrsquo;t just another story of urban decay. Itandrsquo;s a compelling analysis of institutional injustice wrapped in the promise of revitalization, a powerful history of exclusion and destruction in the name of progress.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;For decades in the twentieth century, Flint, Michigan, produced millions of the latest model General Motors cars, as well as made itself into a model of another kind: a metropolitan area whose relentless pursuit of a more prosperous future came at the price of growing racial segregation, economic inequality, and political fragmentation. Highsmith is a wonderful guide through the tragic interplay of deindustrialization, suburbanization, and disinvestment that unfolded in Americaandrsquo;s industrial heartland. His is a deeply local story with enormous national significance.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Highsmithandrsquo;s illuminating chronicle of Flintandrsquo;s persistent problems and ongoing efforts at revitalization is a cautionary tale for anyone with aspirations of improving Americaandrsquo;s cities. The durability of divisions of race and class is evident despite the resilience and creativity of business and community leaders. Highsmithandrsquo;s attention to how local practices often reinforce segregation and inequality is a contribution not only to urban history but also the scholarship of city politics, development, public policy, and administration.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Demolition Means Progress testifies to the continued vibrancy of urban history and its remapping of how we understand the twentieth-century United States. In a book bursting with ideas and fresh insights, Highsmith rethinks de jure and de facto racial segregation, creates a new vocabulary for suburban, metropolitan, and regional forms of capitalism, and brilliantly narrates the entire arc of twentieth-century American industrialization at the scale of a single city, Flint, Michigan, and its suburbs. A remarkable book.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Powerful. . . . Demolition Means Progress is a story of how peopleandmdash;in this case, the founding fathers of Flintandrsquo;s white suburbsandmdash;used municipal government as a weapon, drawing borders of citizenship to exclude people of color and the poor from the regionandrsquo;s wealth. Thatandrsquo;s a story that played out in metropolitan areas across America in the decades after World War II. But it was particularly devastating in Flint.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;If you wonder why there is so much anger in the African-American communities of the US today, you should read Highsmithandrsquo;s book. It is a primer on the bad things done to black people who dared to pursue the American dream. . . . Liberals will find Highsmithandrsquo;s account particularly harrowing because the road to hell in Flint was often paved with good intentions. The policies of Franklin Rooseveltandrsquo;s New Deal, for example, helped lay the foundation for persistent residential segregation of the city and its suburbs.andrdquo;
Synopsis
During the civil rights era, Atlanta thought of itself as "The City Too Busy to Hate," a rare place in the South where the races lived and thrived together. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, however, so many whites fled the city for the suburbs that Atlanta earned a new nickname: "The City Too Busy Moving to Hate."
In this reappraisal of racial politics in modern America, Kevin Kruse explains the causes and consequences of "white flight" in Atlanta and elsewhere. Seeking to understand segregationists on their own terms, White Flight moves past simple stereotypes to explore the meaning of white resistance. In the end, Kruse finds that segregationist resistance, which failed to stop the civil rights movement, nevertheless managed to preserve the world of segregation and even perfect it in subtler and stronger forms.
Challenging the conventional wisdom that white flight meant nothing more than a literal movement of whites to the suburbs, this book argues that it represented a more important transformation in the political ideology of those involved. In a provocative revision of postwar American history, Kruse demonstrates that traditional elements of modern conservatism, such as hostility to the federal government and faith in free enterprise, underwent important transformations during the postwar struggle over segregation. Likewise, white resistance gave birth to several new conservative causes, like the tax revolt, tuition vouchers, and privatization of public services. Tracing the journey of southern conservatives from white supremacy to white suburbia, Kruse locates the origins of modern American politics.
Synopsis
The forgotten story of how southern white supremacy and resistance to desegregation helped give birth to the modern conservative movement
During the civil rights era, Atlanta thought of itself as The City Too Busy to Hate, a rare place in the South where the races lived and thrived together. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, however, so many whites fled the city for the suburbs that Atlanta earned a new nickname: The City Too Busy Moving to Hate.
In this reappraisal of racial politics in modern America, Kevin Kruse explains the causes and consequences of white flight in Atlanta and elsewhere. Seeking to understand segregationists on their own terms, White Flight moves past simple stereotypes to explore the meaning of white resistance. In the end, Kruse finds that segregationist resistance, which failed to stop the civil rights movement, nevertheless managed to preserve the world of segregation and even perfect it in subtler and stronger forms.
Challenging the conventional wisdom that white flight meant nothing more than a literal movement of whites to the suburbs, this book argues that it represented a more important transformation in the political ideology of those involved. In a provocative revision of postwar American history, Kruse demonstrates that traditional elements of modern conservatism, such as hostility to the federal government and faith in free enterprise, underwent important transformations during the postwar struggle over segregation. Likewise, white resistance gave birth to several new conservative causes, like the tax revolt, tuition vouchers, and privatization of public services. Tracing the journey of southern conservatives from white supremacy to white suburbia, Kruse locates the origins of modern American politics.
Synopsis
In 1997, after General Motors shuttered a massive complex of factories in the gritty industrial city of Flint, Michigan, signs were placed around the empty facility reading, andldquo;Demolition Means Progress,andrdquo; suggesting that the struggling metropolis could not move forward to greatness until the old plants met the wrecking ball. Much more than a trite corporate slogan, the phrase encapsulates the operating ethos of the nationandrsquo;s metropolitan leadership from at least the 1930s to the present. Throughout, the leaders of Flint and other municipalities repeatedly tried to revitalize their communities by demolishing outdated and inefficient structures and institutions and overseeing numerous urban renewal campaignsandmdash;many of which yielded only more impoverished and more divided metropolises. After decades of these efforts, the dawn of the twenty-first century found Flint one of the most racially segregated and economically polarized metropolitan areas in the nation.
In one of the most comprehensive works yet written on the history of inequality and metropolitan development in modern America, Andrew R. Highsmith uses the case of Flint to explain how the perennial quest for urban renewalandmdash;even more than white flight, corporate abandonment, and other forcesandmdash;contributed to mass suburbanization, racial and economic division, deindustrialization, and political fragmentation. Challenging much of the conventional wisdom about structural inequality and the roots of the nationandrsquo;s andldquo;urban crisis,andrdquo; Demolition Means Progress shows in vivid detail how public policies and programs designed to revitalize the Flint area ultimately led to the hardening of social divisions.
About the Author
Andrew R. Highsmith is assistant professor of public administration and an affiliated faculty member in history and urban and regional planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 3
CHAPTER ONE: "The City oo Busy to Hate": Atlanta and the Politics of Progress 19
CHAPTER TWO: From Radicalism to "Respectability": Race, Residence, and Segregationist Strategy 42
C HAPTER THREE: From Community to Individuality: Race, Residence, and Segregationist Ideology 78
CHAPTER FOUR: The Abandonment of Public Space: Desegregation, Privatization, and the ax Revolt 105
CHAPTER FIVE: The "Second Battle of Atlanta": Massive Resistance and the Divided Middle Class 131
CHAPTER SIX: The Fight for "Freedom of Association": School Desegregation and White Withdrawal 161
CHAPTER SEVEN: Collapse of the Coalition: Sit-Ins and the Business Rebellion 180
CHAPTER EIGHT: "The Law of the Land": Federal Intervention and the Civil Rights Act 205
CHAPTER NINE: City Limits: Urban Separatism and Suburban Secession 234
EPILOGUE: The Legacies of White Flight 259
List of Abbreviations 267
Notes 269
Index 313