American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass [Hardcover]

Douglas Massey (Author), Nancy Denton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674018206 | ISBN-13: 978-0674018204 | Publication Date: January 1993

This powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities.

American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation."

The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn. Under conditions of extreme segregation, any increase in the overall rate of black poverty yields a marked increase in the geographic concentration of indigence and the deterioration of social and economic conditions in black communities. As ghetto residents adapt to this increasingly harsh environment under a climate of racial isolation, they evolve attitudes, behaviors, and practices that further marginalize their neighborhoods and undermine their chances of success in mainstream American society. This book is a sober challenge to those who argue that race is of declining significance in the United States today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"During the 1970s and 1980s a word disappeared from the American vocabulary," begins American Apartheid ". . . That word was segregation." But the practice of segregation certainly has not disappeared, as Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton glaringly expose. One-third of all American blacks live in one of just 16 urban areas, in neighborhoods so racially segregated they have almost no chance at interracial contact. The authors argue that segregation--and disassocation from not only other cultures, but other ways of life--is at the root of many problems facing African-Americans today. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Scientific American

A major contribution to our understanding of both racism and poverty. One hopes that the book will be read, not only by other scholars and policy analysts, but by a broad spectrum of citizens and by all the leaders of the nation. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674018206
• ISBN-13: 978-0674018204
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Douglas S. Massey is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Formerly he was the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-author of American Apartheid (Harvard University Press, 1993), which won the Distinguished Publication Award of the American Sociological Association, and more recently he co-authored The Source of the River, the first analysis of minority achievement in selective colleges and universities based on a representative, national sample.

Massey has also published extensively on Mexican immigration, including the books Return to Aztlan (University of California Press, 1987) and Miracles on the Border (University of Arizona Press, 1995). The latter book, co-authored with Jorge Durand, won a 1996 Southwest Book Award. His latest two books on immigration, coauthored with long-time collaborator Jorge Durand, are Crossing the Border (Russell Sage Press, 2004) and Beyond Smoke and Mirrors (Russell Sage Press 2002). The latter offers a critical analysis of U.S. immigration policy toward Mexico during a period of widespread economic integration under NAFTA and won the 2004 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for the best book in social demography,.

Massey has also served on the faculty of the University of Chicago where he directed its Latin American Studies Center and Population Research Center. He is also formerly a director of the University of Pennsylvania's Population Studies Center and chair of its Graduate Group in Demography. During 1979 and 1980 he undertook postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley and Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1978. Massey is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is Past-President of the Population Association of America and the American Sociological Association and current President of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

His most recent book is Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in America's Selective Colleges and Universities (Princeton University Press 2009). He is currently revising a book entitled Brokered Boundaries: Constructing Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times (co-authored with Magaly Sanchez).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and important book, March 4, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Anderson (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Paperback)

This is the most important book explaining the causes of African-American disadvantage in the U.S. today. Packed with data and argumentation, it documents the devastating impact of residential segregation on African-American socioeconomic prospects. One of the best features of the book is the way it subsumes other prominant explanations of African-American disadvantage--for example, William J. Wilson's spatial-mismatch hypothesis, and "culture of poverty"/"black cultural pathology" theories--within its theoretical framework.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This completed the puzzle for me., June 11, 2008

By 

dirtymc (new jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Paperback)

I have looked in to the subject of race relations for quite sometime now. I have taken in to account all the sides from Liberal to Conservative and somehow always felt something was missing. In one short read this book provided me the missing piece that was needed. I may not always agree with the authors' line of thinking but their work is truly groundbreaking even to this day.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy Aitkens, March 11, 2002

By 

lucy aitkens (London, Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Paperback)

This remains, without question, one of the most excellent and insightful assessments of race in America. Whether you are a US citizen or an international visitor to the US this book is fundmental to understanding the hidden dimensions of ongoing racial division. Read it and pass it on in the hope that people will recognise the irrefutable evidence of racial segregation offered by Massey and Denton.