The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, Revised and Expanded Edition (The Haymarket Series)

An original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger’s widely acclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explained simply with reference to economic advantage; rather, white working-class racism is underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforce racial stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks. In a new preface, Roediger reflects on the reception, influence, and critical response to The Wages of Whiteness , while Kathleen Cleaver’s insightful introduction hails the importance of a work that has become a classic. Frontmatter Acknowledgements (page vii) Preface to the Third Edition (page ix) Introduction (Kathleen Cleaver, page xix) PART I Introducing the White Worker 1 On Autobiography and Theory: An Introduction (page 3) 2 The Prehistory of the White Worker: Settler Colonialism, Race and Republicanism before 1800 (page 19) PART II Race and the Languages of Class from the Revolution to the Civil War 3 'Neither a Servant Nor a Master Am I': Keywords in the Languages of White Labor Republicanism (page 43) 4 White Slaves, Wage Slaves and Free White Labor (page 65) PART III Work, Culture and Whiteness in Industrializing America 5 Class, Coons and Crowds in Antebellum America (page 95) 6 White Skins, Black Masks: Minstrelsy and White Working Class Formation before the Civil War (page 115) 7 Irish‐American Workers and White Racial Formation in the Antebellum United States (page 133) PART IV The Limits of Emancipation and the Fate of Working Class Whiteness 8 Epilogue: A New Life and Old Habits (page 167) Selected Writings (page 185) Index (page 189) "An original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger’s widely acclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explained simply with reference to economic advantage; rather, white working-class racism is underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforce racial stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks. In a new preface, Roediger reflects on the reception, influence, and critical response to The Wages of Whiteness, while Kathleen Cleaver’s insightful introduction hails the importance of a work that has become a classic." -- Provided by publisher Studies Working Class Racism In The United States And Discusses What Psychological And Ideological Beliefs Contribute To The Racial Stereotypes That Separate White And African-american Workers. Introducing The White Worker -- Race And The Languages Of Class From The Revolution To The Civil War -- Work, Culture, And Whiteness In Industrializing America -- The Limits Of Emancipation And The Fate Of Working Class Whiteness. David R. Roediger. Originally Published: 1991. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 185-187) And Index. Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis and the labor history pioneered by E P Thompson and Herbert Gutman, this book provides a study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. It surveys scholarship on whiteness, and discusses the changing face of labor in the twenty-first century.