Synopses & Reviews
Capitalism and slavery stand as the two economic phenomena that have most clearly defined the United States. Yet, despite African Americans' nearly $500 billion annual spending power, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the ways U.S. businesses have courted black dollars in post-slavery America. Robert E. Weems, Jr., presents the first fully integrated history of black consumerism over the course of the last century.
The World War I era Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern and southern cities stimulated initial corporate interest in blacks as consumers. A generation later, as black urbanization intensified during World War II and its aftermath, the notion of a distinct, profitable African American consumer market gained greater currency. Moreover, black socioeconomic gains resulting from the Civil Rights movement which itself featured such consumer justice protests as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, further enhanced the status and influence of African American shoppers.
Unwilling to settle for facile answers, Weems explores the role of black entrepreneurs who promoted the importance of the African American consumer market to U.S. corporations. Their actions, ironically, set the stage for the ongoing destruction of black-owned business. While the extent of educational, employment, and residential desegregation remains debatable, African American consumer dollars have, by any standard, been fully incorporated into the U.S. economy.
Desegregating the Dollar takes us through the "blaxploitation" film industry, the vast market for black personal care products, and the insidious exploitation of black urban misery by liquor and cigarette advertisers. Robert E. Weems, Jr., has given us the definitive account of the complicated relationship between African Americans, capitalism, and consumerism.
Review
"Well organized, including all the topics that a course on contemporary political thought should cover, and several other important topics that most texts omit."-Mark Graber,University of Maryland
Review
"This is an ambitious text that will be very useful in the classroom because of its commitment to present a very broad range of contemporary political thought in both a historical and an intellectual context."-Lisa Disch,University of Minnesota
Synopsis
Contemporary Political Thought is a foundation textbook in political thought. It brings together readings by leading exponents of contemporary political theory with lucid, jargon-free introductions, and is the first book in the area to combine these pedagogical elements.
The book is divided into 12 sections: the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries, interpreting political thought now and then, liberalisms, conservatisms, marxisms, communitarianism, feminism, ecologism and environmentalism, post-structuralism and post-modernism, multi-culturalism, political thought beyond the Western tradition, and democratic theory for a new century.
Each section contains several influential texts that provide discussion of various key theoretical positions. The introductions elucidate some of the main currents within the area of thought, and the areas of most significant tension, give cross-references to other theories, and contextualize the readings that follow. An indispensable aid for students and professors alike, Contemporary Political Thought is the perfect introduction to theoretical approaches to politics.
About the Author
Robert E. Weems, Jr., is Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Columbia and author of Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century (NYU Press).