The Unsteady March; The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America

Klinkner, Philip A. with Smith, Rogers M.

ISBN 10: 0226443396 / ISBN 13: 9780226443393

Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999

About this Item

vii, [1], 417, [7] pages. Inscribed by the author (Philip Klinkner) on the page facing the title page: To Dave, Thanks for a great discussion. Best Wishes, Philip Klinkner. Includes Acknowledgments, Introduction (The Unsteady March); "Bolted with the Lock of a Hundred Keys"; "Thenceforward, and Forever Free", The Civil War, 1860-1865; The Negro Has Got as Much as He Ought to Have; The Color Line; Deutschland and Dixieland; "Double V: Victory Abroad, Victory at Home" "Hearts and Minds"; There Comes a Time--The Civil Rights Revolution, 1954-1968; "Benign Neglect"? Post-Civil Rights America, 1968-1998; Conclusion--Shall We Overcome? Also contains Notes and Index. Philip A. Klinkner (born May 21, 1963) is an American political scientist, blogger and author. He is noted for his work on American politics, especially political parties and elections, race and American politics, and American political history. Klinkner is the James S. Sherman Professor of Government at Hamilton College. He attended Yale University for M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science. In 1995, he received the Emerging Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association. In The Unsteady March, Klinkner and Rogers Smith argue America's record of race relations cannot be categorized as consistent, gradual advancement towards equality but rather as a series of dramatic moments where multiple factors aligned to advance or hinder progress. It won the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute's Horace Mann Bond Book Award and was named as a semifinalist for the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Rogers Smith (born September 20, 1953) is an American political scientist and author noted for his research and writing on American constitutional and political development and political thought, with a focus on issues of citizenship and racial, gender, and class inequalities. Smith attended graduate school at Harvard University, completing his M.A. in 1978 and his Ph.D. degree in government in 1980. Smith taught at Yale University from 1980 to 2001, when he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science. Smith was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004; a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2011; and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2016. He served as president of the American Political Science Association in 2018-2019. In their sweeping and accessible account of race relations, Klinkner and Smith show that significant advances in racial justice have occurred only when three circumstances have converged: large-scale wars, which require extensive economic and military mobilization of African Americans; an enemy that inspires American leaders to advocate inclusive, egalitarian values in order to justify the war; and domestic political organizations that are able to reassure those leaders to follow through on their rhetoric. Without these factors working together, as they did during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and old War eras, substantial progress has yet to occur. In their conclusion, the authors argue that we are today in a period of retrenchment such as those that have followed previous reform eras. With its insights into contemporary racial politics and its wealth of historical material, The Unsteady March is a comprehensive, if controversial, analysis of race relations across two centuries. The fight for racial equality has not been won, nor will it be unless we recognize the true factors behind progress and the extraordinary efforts required to achieve it.

Seller Inventory # 82747

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Unsteady March; The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226443396
• ISBN 13: 9780226443393
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing [Stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Slavery
  • Cold War
  • Civil Rights
  • Civil War

About this title

Synopsis

This work aims to disprove the idea that the United States has been on a "steady march" toward the end of racial discrimination. Rather, progress has been made only in brief periods, under special conditions, and it has always been followed by periods of stagnation and retrenchment. In this history of race relations, Philip Klinkner and Rogers Smith show that significant advances in racial justice have occurred only when three circumstances have converged: large-scale wars, which require extensive economic and military mobilization of African Americans; an enemy that inspires American leaders to advocate inclusive, egalitarian values in order to justify the war; and domestic political organizations that are able to pressure those leaders to follow through on their rhetoric. Klinkner and Smith's history demonstrates that substantial progress has not yet occurred without these factors working together, as they did during the Revolutionary War, Civil War and Cold War eras. With its insights into contemporary racial politics and its wealth of historical material, this book is a controversial analysis of race relations across two centuries. The fight for racial equality has not been won, the authors argue, nor will it be unless one recognizes the true factors behind progress and the extraordinary efforts required to achieve it.

About the Authors

Philip A. Klinkner is the James S. Sherman Professor of Government at Hamilton College.


Rogers M. Smith is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.