Bøger af George M. Fredrickson

Probes the history of racial and ethnic diversity in the United States and other parts of the world. This book explores various interpretations of slavery and race relations in the United States and introduces comparative perspectives on Europe, South Africa, and Brazil.

Are antisemitism and white supremacy manifestations of a general phenomenon? Why didn't racism appear in Europe before the fourteenth century, and why did it flourish as never before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Why did the twentieth century see institutionalized racism in its most extreme forms? Why are egalitarian societies particularly susceptible to virulent racism? What do apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, and the American South under Jim Crow have in common? How did the Holocaust advance civil rights in the United States? With a rare blend of learning, economy, and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present. Beginning with the medieval antisemitism that put Jews beyond the pale of humanity, he traces the spread of racist thinking in the wake of European expansionism and the beginnings of the African slave trade. And he examines how the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century romantic nationalism created a new intellectual context for debates over slavery and Jewish emancipation. Fredrickson then makes the first sustained comparison between the color-coded racism of nineteenth-century America and the antisemitic racism that appeared in Germany around the same time. He finds similarity enough to justify the common label but also major differences in the nature and functions of the stereotypes invoked. The book concludes with a provocative account of the rise and decline of the twentieth century's overtly racist regimes--the Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, and apartheid South Africa--in the context of world historical developments. This illuminating work is the first to treat racism across such a sweep of history and geography. It is distinguished not only by its original comparison of modern racism's two most significant varieties--white supremacy and antisemitism--but also by its eminent readability.

An investigation of the issue of race over a generation of labor

This collection of essays covers issues central to the understanding of the history of racism, the role of racism and the possibilities for justice in contemporary society. It provides an examination of race relations in the USA and South Africa, and looks at comparative history.

This book focuses on Lincoln's controversial attitudes and actions regarding slavery and race. Drawing attention to the limitations of Lincoln's judgment and policies without denying his magnitude, it provides the most comprehensive, even-handed account available of Lincoln's contradictory treatment of black Americans.

The Inner Civil War is a classic that has influenced historians' views of the Civil War and American intellectual change in the nineteenth century. This edition includes a new preface in which the author demonstrates the continuing relevance of the work and updates its interpretations.