Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs [Paperback]

David R. Roediger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

At the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history, David R. Roediger is 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. He recounts how American ethnic groups considered white today-including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans-once occupied a confused racial status in their new country. They eventually became part of white America thanks to the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants--the racist real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods--Roediger explores the murky realities of race in twentieth-century America. A masterful history by an award-winning writer, Working Toward Whiteness charts the strange transformation of these new immigrants into the "white ethnics" of America today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Blindingly revealing and of lasting scholarly value."

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465070744
• ISBN-13: 978-0465070749
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)