Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy (Politics and Culture in Modern America)

Geary, Daniel

ISBN 10: 0812247310 / ISBN 13: 9780812247312

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015

About this Item

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item! Ships USPS Media Mail.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy (Politics and Culture in Modern America)
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812247310
• ISBN 13: 9780812247312
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

Shortly after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Daniel Patrick Moynihan authored a government report titled The Negro Family: A Case for National Action that captured the attention of President Lyndon Johnson. Responding to the demands of African American activists that the United States go beyond civil rights to secure economic justice, Moynihan thought his analysis of black families highlighted socioeconomic inequality. However, the report's central argument that poor families headed by single mothers inhibited African American progress touched off a heated controversy. The long-running dispute over Moynihan's conclusions changed how Americans talk about race, the family, and poverty.

Fifty years after its publication, the Moynihan Report remains a touchstone in contemporary racial politics, cited by President Barack Obama and Congressman Paul Ryan among others. Beyond Civil Rights offers the definitive history of the Moynihan Report controversy. Focusing on competing interpretations of the report from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, Geary demonstrates its significance for liberals, conservatives, neoconservatives, civil rights leaders, Black Power activists, and feminists. He also illustrates the pitfalls of discussing racial inequality primarily in terms of family structure. Beyond Civil Rights captures a watershed moment in American history that reveals the roots of current political divisions and the stakes of a public debate that has extended for decades.

About the Author

Daniel Geary is Mark Pigott Associate Professor in U.S. History at Trinity College Dublin and author of Radical Ambition: C. Wright Mills, the Left, and American Social Thought.