Race-Making Nation

In a new review for the Progressive Populist, Seth Sandronsky praises How Race Survived US History as "a provocative book ... Roediger's take on Barack Obama is crucial":

How, David R. Roediger asks, has race persisted in the US despite "changes that we generally regard as constant, dramatic, and, in the main, progressive?" In How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon, he helps us to see the factors and forces driving the growth of racial rankings.

What began as campaigns of white settler violence against blacks and Indians lay the groundwork for the development of the American nation that "has never been without race," unlike the rest of the world for most of its history, Roediger writes. He re-interprets how a belief in and practice of white race supremacy has persisted, parried challenges and made concessions in ways that strengthened labor and legal systems that spur land expansion and capital accumulation.

Visit  the Progressive Populist to read the review in full.