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Atlanta is often cited as a prime example of a progressive New South metropolis in which blacks and whites have forged "a city too busy to hate." But Ronald Bayor argues that the city continues to bear the indelible mark of racial bias. Offering the first comprehensive history of Atlanta race relations, he discusses the impact of race on the physical and institutional development of the city from the end of the Civil War through the mayorship of Andrew Young in the 1980s. Bayor shows the extent of inequality, investigates the gap between rhetoric and reality, and presents a fresh analysis of the legacy of segregation and race relations for the American urban environment.

Bayor explores frequently ignored public policy issues through the lens of race--including hospital care, highway placement and development, police and fire services, schools, and park use, as well as housing patterns and employment. He finds that racial concerns profoundly shaped Atlanta, as they did other American cities. Drawing on oral interviews and written records, Bayor traces how Atlanta's black leaders and their community have responded to the impact of race on local urban development. By bringing long-term urban development into a discussion of race, Bayor provides an element missing in usual analyses of cities and race relations. ... Read more

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A must read for any new Atlantan
If you live in Atlanta and wonder why its Briarcliff becomes Moreland when you cross Ponce, why Marta [stinks], or why even now this vibrant city seems so segregated, you need to read this book.It is an enlightening (if at some points dense) view of the history of Atlanta from the perspective on race and especially for my generation (those who grew up after the civil rights movement) it is a book about the side of race relations you can not truly fathom until you are able to put Atlanta of the past together with Atlanta today. ... Read more

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Thirteen essays combine classical scholars' interest in theatrical production with a growing interdisciplinary inquiry into the urban contexts of literary production. At once a study of classical Greek literature and an analysis of cultural production, this collection reveals how for two centuries Athens itself was transformed, staged as comedy, and ultimately shaped by contemporary material, social, and ideological forces . ... Read more

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Precise connections between race, poverty, and the condition of America's cities are drawn in this collection of seventeen essays. Policymakers and scholars from a variety of disciplines analyze the plight of the urban poor since the riots of the 1960s and the resulting 1968 Kerner Commission Report on the status of African Americans. In essays addressing health care, education, welfare, and housing policies, the contributors reassess the findings of the report in light of developments over the last thirty years, including the Los Angeles riots of 1992. Some argue that the long-standing obstacles faced by the urban poor cannot be removed without revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods; others emphasize strategies to break down racial and economic isolation and promote residential desegregation throughout metropolitan areas.

Guided by a historical perspective, the contributors propose a new combination of economic and social policies to transform cities while at the same time improving opportunities and outcomes for inner-city residents. This approach highlights the close links between progress for racial minorities and the overall health of cities and the nation as a whole.

The volume, which began as a special issue of the North Carolina Law Review, has been significantly revised and expanded for publication as a book.

The contributors are John Charles Boger, Alison Brett, John O. Calmore, Peter Dreier, Susan F. Fainstein, Walter C. Farrell Jr., Nancy Fishman, George C. Galster, Chester Hartman, James H. Johnson Jr., Ann Markusen, Patricia Meaden, James E. Rosenbaum, Peter W. Salsich Jr., Michael A. Stegman, David Stoesz, Charles Sumner Stone Jr., William L. Taylor, Sidney D. Watson, and Judith Welch Wegner. ... Read more

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Wolfinger demonstrates how racial tensions in working-class neighborhoods and job sites shaped the contours of mid-twentieth-century liberal and conservative politics. As racial divisions fractured the working class, he argues, Republican leaders exploited these racial fissures to reposition their party as the champion of ordinary white citizens besieged by black demands and overwhelmed by liberal government orders. ... Read more

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Race and Politics in 1930s - 1950s Philadelphia Analyzed
This book expertly observes how the Republican Party in Philadelphia in the 1930s through the 1959s used racial issues to their electoral advantage.They used the increased competition for jobs and housing to appeal to white voters who were upset over the New Deal programs of Democrats that were improving the standing of African Americans.The basis of modern liberalism is rooted in these New Deal efforts, plus, those opposing using tax dollars being spent on others formed the basis of modern conservatism, according to the author.

Philadelphia Republican leaders presented their party as one representing the interests of working class whites who were being overwhelmed by taxes for new programs that were demanded by Black voters.While this was a recognized tactic by the national Republican Party in the 1960s, Philadelphia Republicans used this appeal to control city politics from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Housing issues were very racially sensitive.Blacks moving into Philadelphia neighborhoods that were mostly Irish American or Italian American could spark riots.Whites were found to fear Black neighbors would bring increased crime and sexual promiscuity into their communities.White also believed Black neighbors would lower property values.Meanwhile, Blacks demanded an end to discrimination against them as well as housing desegregation.
These divisions in Philadelphia prevented the creation of a liberal alliance between Blacks and whites that was created in other cities.Philadelphia had one of the largest Black populations of northern cities.Democrats sought to appeal to this large Black vote.Republicans used racial appeals in their Philadelphia campaigns.Philadelphia Republicans did not rely much on the national Republican tactic of charging that communism was a part of the New Deal.This charge worked in other parts of the country but was found to have made little impact in Philadelphia.It was the racial issues that dominated Philadelphia politics then.

In 1918, Blacks moved into homes bordering small Black residential areas.This led to rioting and an attempted lynching.The Klan became more active in Philadelphia.The Klan's anti-Catholic beliefs caused it to be ignored by mostly Catholic Irish and Italian Americans in Philadelphia.

Free market Republicans formed a political faction led by Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association leaders Joseph Grundy and G. Mason Owlett as well as Sun Oil Company's Joseph Pew.The Republican Party machine operations were led by William Vare. The machine registered fake voters, paid voters at the polls to vote Republican, and beat up and imprisoned Democratic election day workers.

Pennsylvania was a historic Republican state.From 1893 to 1931, Republicans won 95 of 96 statewide elections.
The Philadelphia Republican Party cemented support with business interests.The business leaders let the Vares run city government in return for the nominating pro-business, pro-high tariff candidates.

Philadelphia Democrats realized they needed the votes of Blacks to win city elections. Blacks demanded fair treatment from Democratic leaders.Blacks were named to Delegate positions.

Philadelphia Republican leaders resisted Roosevelt's jobs programs.Mayor J. Hampton Moore turned down building a city airport and putting in sewer lines that would have used WPA jobs.

Philadelphia Republicans turned to racist campaigning.They distributed literature to white voters warning of rising Black power that had a photograph of Black Democratic State Rep. Marshall Shepard. The brochure asked "should you white people have Black representation?Register and vote Republican and do away with these things."

The segregation of housing resulted in keeping Blacks distances from where most jobs and good schools were.
Republican Mayor Robert Lamberto stopped requesting Federal housing in 1940.This was a blend of fiscal conservatism and racism.Housing advocates argued only 3,000 units had been built when 50,000 were needed.
Bernard Samuel was a Republican who was elected Philadelphia Mayor in 1941 by fighting against more public housing for Blacks and for being against a Fair Employment Practices Committee.

Racial tension flared in 1942.Blacks felt Major Samuel and Republican leaders had acted slowly in preventing rioting against Blacks.

The Transportation Workers Union, whose membership was white, fought against CIO unionizing attempts.They distributed leaflets that stated to "protect your loved ones. Get rid of the Negro by joining the white cause."
Union interests fighting each other on racial lines demonstrated how Republican and corporate leaders divided what otherwise could have been a significant liberal coalition, according to the author.Mayor Samuel declined to attempt to defuse labor fights as Republicans realized the racial conflicts were hurting Democrats.President Roosevelt sent 5,000 soldiers in 1944 to end a strike that was hurting war production.Blacks were then allowed to be hired as transit drivers.

80% of racial violence happened in predominately Black neighborhoods in North Philadelphia.Damages to stores typically spared businesses that Blacks felt treated them well.Damage was more prevalent against businesses Black felt had treated them poorly, many of which were owned by people of Irish or Italian descent.

Private builders built only 164 homes in Philadelphia in 1944.Tens of thousands were seeking homes that were not built.The Black population was 250,000 in 1940 and 375,000 in 1050.Many new Blacks could only find inferior housing.35% of Blacks and 8% of whites lived in dilapidated or bathless housing.11% of Philadelphia housing was eligible for redevelopment, which was where 75% of Blacks lived.

William Levitt constructed 145,000 homes in suburbs outside Philadelphia for purchase by white middle class people from 1945 to 1955.Levittown, as it became, refused to allow Blacks to buy homes.

Republicans worked to prevent passage of any fair employment practices legislation.Democrats such as Richardson Dilworth supported such legislation.Dilworth was elected Mayor in 1951.Frank Rizzo in the 1960s and later Mayor in the 1970s would resume using racial statements and policies.
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The author traces the history of "Ms"., from its pathbreaking origins in 1972 to its final commercial issue in 1989. Drawing on interviews with former editors, archival materials, and the text of "Ms". itself, Farrell examines the magazine's efforts to forge an oppositional politics within the context of the commercial culture. 17 illustrations. ... Read more

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Elegant analysis of timely topic
This is a wonderful book providing a fresh perspective on the history ofthis all important magazine.Farrell lucidly analyzes the tensions thatthis publication faced as it became the most recognized publication toemerge out of the feminist movement in the United States over the past 30years.She coins the term "popular feminism" in this book todescribe what Ms. set out to accomplish.She uses this term seriously andaddresses its implications with care, neither condemning the magazine orits publishers for seeking a mass audience, nor naively celebrating Ms. asa "true" mouthpiece of women everywhere. On the contrary, hertext reveals the complexity of this idea: the difficult, and ultimatelyimpossible, negotiations between commercial and social interests that themagazine attempted to negotiate, the possibilities created by a mass mediaperiodical that addressed its audiences as political subjects, and theclaim that readers made to make the magazine their own. Farrell's brilliantaccount of the history of Ms. comes at an important time as the publicationhas recently hit hard times. Some have argued that the magazine serves nouseful purpose anymore, even that feminism is dead.After readingFarrell's book, it is clear to me that neither is true, and that both Ms.and feminism are involved in complex cultural dialogues and are continuallyevolving. ... Read more

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David Ruggles (1810-1849) was of one of the most heroic--and has been one of the most often overlooked--figures of the early abolitionist movement in America. Graham Russell Gao Hodges provides the first biography of this African American activist, writer, publisher, and hydrotherapist who secured liberty for more than six hundred former bond people, the most famous of whom was Frederick Douglass. A forceful, courageous voice for black freedom, Ruggles mentored Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William Cooper Nell in the skills of antislavery activism. As a founder of the New York Committee of Vigilance, he advocated a "practical abolitionism" that included civil disobedience and self-defense in order to preserve the rights of self-emancipated enslaved people and to protect free blacks from kidnappers who would sell them into slavery in the South.

Hodges's narrative places Ruggles in the fractious politics and society of New York, where he moved among the highest ranks of state leaders and spoke up for common black New Yorkers. His work on the Committee of Vigilance inspired many upstate New York and New England whites, who allied with him to form a network that became the Underground Railroad.

Hodges's portrait of David Ruggles establishes the abolitionist as an essential link between disparate groups--male and female, black and white, clerical and secular, elite and rank-and-file--recasting the history of antebellum abolitionism as a more integrated and cohesive movement than is often portrayed.

David Ruggles (1810-1849) was of one of the most heroic--and has been one of the most often overlooked--figures of the early abolitionist movement in America. Graham Russell Gao Hodges provides the first biography of this African American activist, writer, publisher, and hydrotherapist who secured liberty for more than six hundred former bond people, the most famous of whom was Frederick Douglass. A forceful, courageous voice for black freedom, Ruggles mentored Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William Cooper Nell in the skills of antislavery activism. As a founder of the New York Committee of Vigilance, he advocated a "practical abolitionism" that included civil disobedience and self-defense in order to preserve the rights of self-emancipated enslaved people and to protect free blacks from kidnappers who would sell them into slavery in the South.



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A Very Brave Man
The Author of this book does a nice job telling the story of a great but largely forgotten man.This could not have been an easy book to write.David Ruggles was a very brave man whose story needed to be told and it is an interesting book indeed.Graham Russell Hodges does a clever job writng this tale,pieced together from many different sources.He puts together a narrative of what it was like in New York and the surrounding areas in the days of the abolitionist movement and the underground railroad.He tells how one man dedicated his life to help others,often at his own risk.He brings you back to a time in New York where black men were kidnapped and brought south to be sold into slavery.David Ruggles would fight the oppressors and he had much success.Read the book. ... Read more

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The first intensive, close-up investigation of the practice and teaching of religion at American colleges and universities, Religion on Campus is an indispensable resource for all who want to understand what religion really means to today's undergraduates.

To explore firsthand how college students understand, practice, and learn about religion, the authors visited four very different U.S. campuses: a Roman Catholic university in the East, a state university in the West, a historically black university in the South, and a Lutheran liberal arts college in the North. They interviewed students, faculty members, and administrators; attended classes; participated in worship services; observed prayer and Bible study groups; and surveyed the general ethos of each campus. The resulting study makes fascinating and important reading for anyone--including students, parents, teachers, administrators, clergy, and scholars--concerned with the future of young Americans.

Challenging theories of the secularization of higher education and the decline of religion on campus, this book reveals that both the practice and the study of religion are thriving, nourished by a campus culture of diversity, tolerance, and choice. ... Read more

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How do American Students Feel about Religion?
How do American students feel about the subject of religion?

Do they feel it still has significance in their lives? Do they actively participate in religious activities? Are they becoming less and less active in religion and more and more secular as each year passes?

Conrad Cherry, Amamda Porterfield, and Betty Deberg selected four colleges to conduct a study about religious attitudes in America today. They chose a Roman Catholic school, a Lutheran school, a Presbyterian school, and a state school for their study. They spent many weeks at each school, going to the events, attending religious services, and conducting interviews with students and religious leaders. The results of their studies were edited and combined together to form this book, "Religion on Campus".

What these three scholars found is that that most students, in spite of the negative news to the contrary, are still active in religion and they still consider it an important part of their lives. They still believe in a higher power and actively debate the role of religion in society. Students also still belive in going to church (although more of them consider themselves spiritual in the broader sense and don't belong to any church)and in the active support of church- related activities.

The authors base these findings on what they saw and heard firsthand during their travels to the different univerisities. However, the fact that they included only four schools makes me a little skeptical. Statistically speaking, one cannot draw any definite conclusions with such a small sample. When you consider the thousands of universities that exist in America, it would be foolish to think that a study of just four of them would be sufficient to declare that American students are more religious than everyone thinks. A larger sample would need to be studied.

Another thing I didn't like about this book is the fact that the authors do not disclose the names of the four colleges in the study. They don't disclose the real names of any of the faculty, students, or administrators either. I can fully understand why individuals might not want to be mentioned by name. But I cannot understand the decision to withhold the names of the schools. As I read, I found myself putting the book down every now and then and trying to figure out what colleges they were talking about. This distracted a little from the book itself. I think disclosing the names would have made for a better read and it would have given a study like this one a little more credibility.

Authors Conrad Cherry, Amanda Porterfield, and Betty DeBerg are three academic scholars who have studied the topic of religion extensively. They have published many articles and presented their own analysis on the topic of religion and its importance to the members of the public. "Religion on Campus" is a respectable effort to study and present the real story behind American students and how they feel about the subject of religion, but it doesn't include enough colleges to represent a viable cross- section of the different types of colleges and the different types of students that attend them. For this reason, I can only give it a two- star rating. It doesn't go in- depth enough to take seriously. ... Read more

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Shedding new light on contemporary campaigns to encourage marriage among welfare recipients and to prosecute "deadbeat dads," Wives without Husbands traces the efforts of Progressive reformers to make "runaway husbands" support their families. Anna R. Igra investigates the interrelated histories of marriage and welfare policy in the early 1900s, revealing how reformers sought to make marriage the solution to women's and children's poverty.

Igra taps a rich trove of case files from the National Desertion Bureau, a Jewish husband-location agency, and follows hundreds of deserted women through the welfare and legal systems of early twentieth-century New York City. She integrates a broad range of topics, including Americanization as a gendered process, breadwinning as a measure of manhood, the relationship between consumer culture and social policy formation, the class dimensions of family law, and the Jewish community as a source of welfare policy innovation. Igra analyzes the history of antidesertion reform from its emergence in social policy debates, through the establishment of domestic relations courts, to Depression relief programs. She shows that early twentieth-century reformers, by attempting to make instrumental use of poor people's intimate relations, anticipated welfare policies in our own time that promote marriage as an answer to poverty. ... Read more

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How did the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee break open the caste system in the American South between 1960 and 1965? In this innovative study, Wesley Hogan explores what SNCC accomplished and, more important, how it fostered significant social change in such a short time. She offers new insights into the internal dynamics of SNCC as well as the workings of the larger civil rights and Black Power movement of which it was a part.

As Hogan chronicles, the members of SNCC created some of the civil rights movement's boldest experiments in freedom, including the sit-ins of 1960, the rejuvenated Freedom Rides of 1961, and grassroots democracy projects in Georgia and Mississippi. She highlights several key players—including Charles Sherrod, Bob Moses, and Fannie Lou Hamer—as innovators of grassroots activism and democratic practice.

Breaking new ground, Hogan shows how SNCC laid the foundation for the emergence of the New Left and created new definitions of political leadership during the civil rights and Vietnam eras. She traces the ways other social movements—such as Black Power, women's liberation, and the antiwar movement—adapted practices developed within SNCC to apply to their particular causes. Many Minds, One Heart ultimately reframes the movement and asks us to look anew at where America stands on justice and equality today. ... Read more

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SNCC As It Was
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) meant many things to many people and remains so today. Wesley Hogan brings SNCC to us in all its strengths and weaknesses for better and for worse. She reveals a driven group of individuals who reached out to local people in the Black Belt South, listening to what they wanted and linking up with the local leaders who were there and who had fought the fight of the oppressed, down-trodden, and poverty-stricken. The study reveals how SNCC staffers went into rural Mississippi, Southwest Georgia, and Alabama and reached out to the local people whether they were literate or not, helping them voice their problems and overcome them by joining together no matter what the danger to them or the SNCC workers who came and stayed among the people and fought the fight with them. While doing this SNCC staffers listened to local elders as well as the young people and heard their stories and paid attention to their recommendations in discovering new leaders and training them to do what needed to be done in creating local movements. Hogan does not shy away from SNCC's difficulties in the Deep South in fighting its violent and brutal enemy and in the process reveals to the nation through its fight that white America needed to be pushed into helping the African Americans of the South by losing some of its best and its brightest in that battle.The course chosen by SNCC is revealed as one of a democratic group operating by consensus decisions rather than leadership from the top like other civil rights organizations. This choice is discussed and documented and examined for where this led and how it finally left the Black Belt South without the SNCC presence that drove the movement there from 1960 to 1966. Hogan documents this study with interviews, archival materials, bibliographic citations, and insightful use of extensive resources. ... Read more

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Polls tell us that most Americans—whether they earn $20,000 or $200,000 a year—think of themselves as middle class. As this phenomenon suggests, "middle class" is a category whose definition is not necessarily self-evident. In this book, historian Daniel Walkowitz approaches the question of what it means to be middle class from an innovative angle. Focusing on the history of social workers—who daily patrol the boundaries of class—he examines the changed and contested meaning of the term over the last one hundred years.

Walkowitz uses the study of social workers to explore the interplay of race, ethnicity, and gender with class. He examines the trade union movement within the mostly female field of social work and looks at how a paradigmatic conflict between blacks and Jews in New York City during the 1960s shaped late-twentieth-century social policy concerning work, opportunity, and entitlements. In all, this is a story about the ways race and gender divisions in American society have underlain the confusion about the identity and role of the middle class. ... Read more

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The idea of "region" in America has often served to isolate places from each other, observes Douglas Reichert Powell. Whether in the nostalgic celebration of folk cultures or the urbane distaste for "hicks," certain regions of the country are identified as static, insular, and culturally disconnected from everywhere else. ... Read more