The American Dilemma PDF Download

Author: Gunnar Myrdal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Non Aboriginal material, excerpt from his book An American dilemma, (1944); 1964; 75-80.

Author: Nancy DiTomaso
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610447891
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s seemed to mark a historical turning point in advancing the American dream of equal opportunity for all citizens, regardless of race. Yet 50 years on, racial inequality remains a troubling fact of life in American society and its causes are highly contested. In The American Non-Dilemma, sociologist Nancy DiTomaso convincingly argues that America's enduring racial divide is sustained more by whites' preferential treatment of members of their own social networks than by overt racial discrimination. Drawing on research from sociology, political science, history, and psychology, as well as her own interviews with a cross-section of non-Hispanic whites, DiTomaso provides a comprehensive examination of the persistence of racial inequality in the post-Civil Rights era and how it plays out in today's economic and political context. Taking Gunnar Myrdal's classic work on America's racial divide, The American Dilemma, as her departure point, DiTomaso focuses on "the white side of the race line." To do so, she interviewed a sample of working, middle, and upper-class whites about their life histories, political views, and general outlook on racial inequality in America. While the vast majority of whites profess strong support for civil rights and equal opportunity regardless of race, they continue to pursue their own group-based advantage, especially in the labor market where whites tend to favor other whites in securing jobs protected from market competition. This "opportunity hoarding" leads to substantially improved life outcomes for whites due to their greater access to social resources from family, schools, churches, and other institutions with which they are engaged. DiTomaso also examines how whites understand the persistence of racial inequality in a society where whites are, on average, the advantaged racial group. Most whites see themselves as part of the solution rather than part of the problem with regard to racial inequality. Yet they continue to harbor strong reservations about public policies—such as affirmative action—intended to ameliorate racial inequality. In effect, they accept the principles of civil rights but not the implementation of policies that would bring about greater racial equality. DiTomaso shows that the political engagement of different groups of whites is affected by their views of how civil rights policies impact their ability to provide advantages to family and friends. This tension between civil and labor rights is evident in Republicans' use of anti-civil rights platforms to attract white voters, and in the efforts of Democrats to bridge race and class issues, or civil and labor rights broadly defined. As a result, DiTomaso finds that whites are, at best, uncertain allies in the fight for racial equality. Weaving together research on both race and class, along with the life experiences of DiTomaso's interview subjects, The American Non-Dilemma provides a compelling exploration of how racial inequality is reproduced in today's society, how people come to terms with the issue in their day-to-day experiences, and what these trends may signify in the contemporary political landscape.

Author: Charles Postel
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 142994692X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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An in-depth study of American social movements after the Civil War and their lessons for today by a prizewinning historian The Civil War unleashed a torrent of claims for equality—in the chaotic years following the war, former slaves, women’s rights activists, farmhands, and factory workers all engaged in the pursuit of the meaning of equality in America. This contest resulted in experiments in collective action, as millions joined leagues and unions. In Equality: An American Dilemma, 1866–1886, Charles Postel demonstrates how taking stock of these movements forces us to rethink some of the central myths of American history. Despite a nationwide push for equality, egalitarian impulses oftentimes clashed with one another. These dynamics get to the heart of the great paradox of the fifty years following the Civil War and of American history at large: Waves of agricultural, labor, and women’s rights movements were accompanied by the deepening of racial discrimination and oppression. Herculean efforts to overcome the economic inequality of the first Gilded Age and the sexual inequality of the late-Victorian social order emerged alongside Native American dispossession, Chinese exclusion, Jim Crow segregation, and lynch law. Now, as Postel argues, the twenty-first century has ushered in a second Gilded Age of savage socioeconomic inequalities. Convincing and learned, Equality explores the roots of these social fissures and speaks urgently to the need for expansive strides toward equality to meet our contemporary crisis.

Author: Arnold Shober
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429972512
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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This compelling new book asks: How can American education policy be consistent with democratic ideals? Robust democracy is the combination of participation, self-rule, equality, understanding, and inclusion, but these norms can produce contradictory policy. Local control in education policy can undermine educational equality. Participation in teachers unions can improve working conditions but thwart self-rule by local taxpayers. The Democratic Dilemma of American Education draws on contemporary research in political science and education policy to offer remarkably balanced insights into these challenging issues. Expertly navigating through local, state, and federal layers of education policy, Arnold Shober examines contemporary controversies over education governance, teachers unions and collective bargaining, school funding, school choice, academic accountability, and desegregation. Shober describes the inherent practical dilemmas of current policy and the difficulties policymakers face in overcoming them to produce lasting educational reform in a democratic, federal system of government. Timely, engaging, and accessible, this is the ideal resource for courses in public policy as well as education and politics.

Author: Barbara Geddes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520918665
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In Latin America as elsewhere, politicians routinely face a painful dilemma: whether to use state resources for national purposes, especially those that foster economic development, or to channel resources to people and projects that will help insure political survival and reelection. While politicians may believe that a competent state bureaucracy is intrinsic to the national good, political realities invariably tempt leaders to reward powerful clients and constituents, undermining long-term competence. Politician's Dilemma explores the ways in which political actors deal with these contradictory pressures and asks the question: when will leaders support reforms that increase state capacity and that establish a more meritocratic and technically competent bureaucracy? Barbara Geddes brings rational choice theory to her study of Brazil between 1930 and 1964 and shows how state agencies are made more effective when they are protected from partisan pressures and operate through merit-based recruitment and promotion strategies. Looking at administrative reform movements in other Latin American democracies, she traces the incentives offered politicians to either help or hinder the process. In its balanced insight, wealth of detail, and analytical rigor, Politician's Dilemma provides a powerful key to understanding the conflicts inherent in Latin American politics, and to unlocking possibilities for real political change.

Author: Zoë Burkholder
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190605138
Category : EDUCATION
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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"Since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 Americans have viewed school integration as a central tenet of the black civil rights movement. Yet, school integration was not the only-or even always the dominant-civil rights strategy. At times, African Americans also fought for separate, Black-controlled schools dedicated to racial uplift, community empowerment, and self-determination. An African American Dilemma offers a social history of debates over school integration within northern Black communities from the 1840s to the present. This broad geographical and temporal focus reveals that northern Black educational activists vacillated between a preference for either school integration or separation during specific eras. Yet, as there was never a consensus, this study also highlights the chorus of dissent, debate, and counter-narratives that pushed families to consider a fuller range of educational reforms. A sweeping historical analysis that covers the entire history of public education in the North, this study complicates our understanding of school integration by highlighting the diverse perspectives of Black students, parents, teachers, and community leaders all committed to improving public education. It finds that Black school integrationists and separatists have worked together in a dynamic tension that fueled effective strategies for educational reform and the black civil rights movement. This study draws on an enormous range of archival data including the black press, school board records, social science studies, the papers of civil rights activists, and court cases"--

Author: Obie Clayton
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 0871541572
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
A study examining research and development projects and capital improvements, and changes in productivity and profitability in selected American manufacturing industries and companies from 1980 to 1989. Special attention is given to the effects of substantial investment increases on productivity and profitability changes. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author: James Devine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481150354
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 654

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Fifty some years after an American Revolution which did not occur, a prosperous UnitedStates of British America is staggered to learn Parliament in London is considering a billto emancipate all the Empire's slaves within seven years. How does the Dominion reactas a whole? How does the slaveholding American South react? Can Governor-GeneralAndrew Jackson and the Dominion government maintain order? And how does theEmpire's enemies react to the prospect of unrest in North America? The prosperous British Empire dominion called the United States of British America isrocked when the Duke of Wellington arrives unexpectedly to announce that Parliament isputting the finishing touches on emancipation legislation scheduled to free all slaves heldin the Empire---including the American South---in seven years. Governor-General Andrew Jackson is maneuvering to keep the crisis from explodingwhen an unthinkable act convinces John C. Calhoun that he can save the "peculiarinstitution"...and cement the South's weakening grip on Dominion political power.Meanwhile, Gen. Winfield Scott worries about his ability to maintain Dominionauthority---in Quebec as well as Dixie---should half his professional officers "go South."Will London's decision to abolish slavery boomerang when the Empire's enemies---Russia and France---attempt to play the crisis to their own advantages? And what ofthat Czarist army now occupying Syria...and threatening to march on the Imperialpossessions in India? A colorful cast of historical characters, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, JeffersonDavis, Robert E. Lee, Zachary Taylor and Martin Van Buren in Georgetown, D.C.collaborate and conspire with and against Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston in Londonand Czar Nicholas I in St. Petersburg.They are joined by vivid fictional characters including a brash young Army intelligenceaide, a tough British diplomat, a Georgetown bureaucrat with a gift for amorousespionage and a diabolical Russian secret agent. As well as their ladies: a politically-awakening Southern belle, a wealthy (and lusty) plantation widow, a frail but iron-willedRussian countess and a disreputable tavern/brothel owner. And an imposing former slave-turned-minister/freedom smuggler.As the political crisis threatens to explode into civil war, one man may hold the key: adisgraced former USBA Vice Governor-General (and shadowy New York political boss)... Aaron Burr.

Author: John Dewey
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231552882
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
John Dewey was America’s greatest public philosopher. His work stands out for its remarkable breadth, and his deep commitment to democracy led him to courageous progressive stances on issues such as war, civil liberties, and racial, class, and gender inequalities. This book collects the clearest and most powerful of his public writings and shows how they continue to speak to the challenges we face today. An introductory essay and short introductions to each of the texts discuss the current relevance and significance of Dewey’s work and legacy. The book includes forty-six essays on topics such as democracy in the United States, political power, education, economic justice, science and society, and philosophy and culture. These essays inspire optimism for the possibility of a more humane public and political culture, in which citizens share in the pursuit of lifelong education through participation in democratic life. The essays in America’s Public Philosopher reveal John Dewey as a powerful example for anyone seeking to address a wider audience and a much-needed voice for all readers in search of intellectual and moral leadership.

Author: Jennifer L. Hochschild
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300031140
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
A provocative examination of school desegregation in America and how it does-and does not-succeed. In this powerful tract on school desegregation, Jennifer Hochschild formulates the most searching challenge to the theory of incrementalism that I have come across in recent years. -David Braybrooke A comprehensive synthesis of what is known about the processes of school desegregation and a powerful policy-oriented argument on a subject whose crucial significance Americans have been unable to wish away. -Paul E. Peterson, Brookings Institution A well-written, insightful survey and analysis of the pattern of school desegregation in American society since the Supreme Court's Brown decisions and a first-rate analysis of the implementation of public policy in the US, with perceptive remarks on incrementalism as a method of change.-Choice The New American Dilemma is policy analysis as it should be done, thorough in its consideration of evidence and bold in its examination of fundamental issues of political practice and social theory.-Clarence N.Stone, Ethics The New American Dilemma challenges almost all positions cherished by liberals and leftists, blacks and whites, including gradualism, democratic participation and ethnic solidarity. Because of that alone, The New American Dilemma is invaluable. -Richard H. King, Journal of American Studies A solid contribution to the literature on desegregation...This thought-provoking book provides an excellent perspective on the thirty years of desegregation since Brown. -Mary Jo Newborn, Michigan Law Review