America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible - Softcover

Thernstrom, Stephan; Thernstrom, Abigail

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684844974 ISBN 13: 9780684844978

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

In a book destined to become a classic, Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom present important new information about the positive changes that have been achieved and the measurable improvement in the lives of the majority of African-Americans. Supporting their conclusions with statistics on education, earnings, and housing, they argue that the perception of serious racial divisions in this country is outdated -- and dangerous.

About this title

Review:

Written by a pair of social scientists--Stephan Thernstrom is a professor of history at Harvard; his wife, Abigail, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute--America in Black and White is a comprehensive look at how much life has changed (and remained the same) for black Americans. The authors conclude that, while much remains to be done, life has gotten measurably better for blacks since the civil rights movement. For example, only a quarter of black families live below the poverty line, as compared with more than three-quarters of black families in 1940; similarly, where 60 percent of working black women were domestics in 1940, today a majority are white-collar workers. In what will likely prove to be the most controversial of their conclusions, the authors argue that, while many problems remain, traditional civil rights remedies, such as affirmative action and racial preferences, will not solve those problems.

About the Author:

Stephan Thernstrom, the Winthrop Professor of History at Harvard University, is the editor of The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups and the author of several other books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684844974
• ISBN 13: 9780684844978
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 704