Race And The Making Of American Liberalism

Tracing the roots of the current crisis of progressive liberalism deep into the nation's racial past, this provocative history examines the American liberal tradition's surprisingly mixed record on equality. Race, Carol Horton claims, has been instrumental in creating some of the nation's most radically democratic forms of liberal politics. Movements for racial justice have led to the inclusion of the disenfranchised, an emphasis on socioeconomic equity, and, more recently, the promotion of cultural diversity. At the same time, racial politics have also ensured that relatively inequitable forms of liberalism flourish in the United States, including mainstream support for tremendously unequal distributions of wealth, power, and status.

Carol A. Horton is an independent scholar and Research Associate at Erikson Institute, Chicago, Illinois.