EBOOK
Cold War Civil Rights
Race and the Image of American Democracy
Mary L. DudziakSeries: Politics and Society in Modern America(0)
About
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
How the fight for civil rights in America became an important front in the Cold War
In 1958, an African American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing less than two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Racial segregation undermined the American image, harming foreign relations in every administration from Truman to Johnson. Mary Dudziak shows how the Cold War helped to facilitate desegregation and other key social reforms at home as the United States sought to polish its image abroad, yet how a focus on appearances over substance limited the nature and extent of progress. Cold War Civil Rights situates the Cold War in civil rights history while giving an international perspective to the fight for racial justice in America. Mary L. Dudziak is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University. Her books include War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences and Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey. "Mary Dudziak's Cold War Civil Rights is a monumental achievement. This classic study offers a nuanced examination of the Cold War's impact on the struggle for civil rights in the United States. The book is as timely and invaluable today as when it was first released. Cold War Civil Rights captures the brilliance of a distinguished legal historian and remarkably skilled writer and researcher."-Keisha N. Blain, coeditor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls
"Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Mary Dudziak's book makes a spectacularly illuminating contribution to a subject traditionally neglected-the linkage between race relations and foreign policy: neither African American history nor diplomatic history will be the same again."-Gerald Horne, author of Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois
"Reinhold Niebuhr once commented that blacks cannot count on the altruism of whites for improvements in blacks' condition. Readers who think Niebuhr's remark was unfair to whites need to read this book. Mary Dudziak documents, in impressive detail, how the self-interest of elite whites instigated, shaped, and limited civil rights gains for blacks during the Cold War years. Raises serious questions about the future of racial justice in America."-Richard Delgado, Jean Lindsley Professor of Law, University of Colorado
"This book is a tour de force. Dudziak's brilliant analysis shows that the Cold War had a profound impact on the civil rights movement. Hers is the first book to make this important connection. It is a major contribution to our understanding of both the civil rights movement and the Cold War itself. Because it is beautifully written in clear, lively prose, and draws its analysis from dramatic events and compelling stories of people involved from the top level of government to the grass roots, it will be an outstanding book for both students and the general public. I recommend it with no hesitation and with great enthusiasm."-Elaine Tyler May, author of Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
"This book reflects a growing interest among historians in the global significance of race. It is accessible and will have multiple uses as an approach to civil rights history, as an examination of policy making, and as a model of how a study can be attentive to both foreign and domestic aspects of a particular issue. It is tightly argued, coherent, and polished, and it features some particularly fine writing."-Brenda Plummer, author of Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960 "Groundbreak
How the fight for civil rights in America became an important front in the Cold War
In 1958, an African American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing less than two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Racial segregation undermined the American image, harming foreign relations in every administration from Truman to Johnson. Mary Dudziak shows how the Cold War helped to facilitate desegregation and other key social reforms at home as the United States sought to polish its image abroad, yet how a focus on appearances over substance limited the nature and extent of progress. Cold War Civil Rights situates the Cold War in civil rights history while giving an international perspective to the fight for racial justice in America. Mary L. Dudziak is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University. Her books include War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences and Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey. "Mary Dudziak's Cold War Civil Rights is a monumental achievement. This classic study offers a nuanced examination of the Cold War's impact on the struggle for civil rights in the United States. The book is as timely and invaluable today as when it was first released. Cold War Civil Rights captures the brilliance of a distinguished legal historian and remarkably skilled writer and researcher."-Keisha N. Blain, coeditor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls
"Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Mary Dudziak's book makes a spectacularly illuminating contribution to a subject traditionally neglected-the linkage between race relations and foreign policy: neither African American history nor diplomatic history will be the same again."-Gerald Horne, author of Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois
"Reinhold Niebuhr once commented that blacks cannot count on the altruism of whites for improvements in blacks' condition. Readers who think Niebuhr's remark was unfair to whites need to read this book. Mary Dudziak documents, in impressive detail, how the self-interest of elite whites instigated, shaped, and limited civil rights gains for blacks during the Cold War years. Raises serious questions about the future of racial justice in America."-Richard Delgado, Jean Lindsley Professor of Law, University of Colorado
"This book is a tour de force. Dudziak's brilliant analysis shows that the Cold War had a profound impact on the civil rights movement. Hers is the first book to make this important connection. It is a major contribution to our understanding of both the civil rights movement and the Cold War itself. Because it is beautifully written in clear, lively prose, and draws its analysis from dramatic events and compelling stories of people involved from the top level of government to the grass roots, it will be an outstanding book for both students and the general public. I recommend it with no hesitation and with great enthusiasm."-Elaine Tyler May, author of Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
"This book reflects a growing interest among historians in the global significance of race. It is accessible and will have multiple uses as an approach to civil rights history, as an examination of policy making, and as a model of how a study can be attentive to both foreign and domestic aspects of a particular issue. It is tightly argued, coherent, and polished, and it features some particularly fine writing."-Brenda Plummer, author of Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960 "Groundbreak