Notes

• "In a revisionist work that fundamentally recasts our understanding of twentieth-century American history, Ira Katznelson conclusively demonstrates that the economic policies enacted during the Great Depression and the ensuing decades not only excluded African Americans from attaining social parity but actually widened the gap between white and black living standards. Katznelson forces us to both reexamine historical truths and reevaluate existing social programs by tracing the origins of the twentieth century’s most glaring inequality from the early days of the New Deal, when President Roosevelt was forced to make a Faustian bargain with the racist southern faction of the Democratic party." "With a broad cast of characters, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Harry Truman, and Lewis Powell, among many others, When Affirmative Action Was White takes a fresh look at a neglected history of race and public policy. It is an examination of why (and how) America must shift its policies radically if it is ever to be a nation with genuinely equal prospects for all its citizens."–BOOK JACKET