David R. Roediger
Personal Information
Description
American historian and professor who's research interests include the construction of racial identity, class structures, labor studies, and the history of American radicalism.
Books
Seizing freedom
How did America recover after its years of civil war? How did freed men and women, former slaves, respond to their newly won freedom? David Roediger's radical new history redefines the idea of freedom after the jubilee, using fresh sources and texts to build on the leading historical accounts of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Reinstating ex-slaves' own "freedom dreams" in constructing these histories, Roediger creates a masterful account of the emancipation and its ramifications on a whole host of day-to-day concerns for Whites and Blacks alike, such as property relations, gender roles, and labor.
How race survived US history
"In this absorbing chronicle of the role of race in US history, David R. Roediger explores how the idea of race was created and recreated from the 1600s to the present day. From the late seventeenth century - the era in which DuBois located the emergence of "whiteness"--Through the American revolution and the emancipatory Civil War, to the civil rights movement and the emergence of the American empire, How Race Survived US History reveals how race did far more than persist as an exception in a progressive national history. Roediger examines how race intersected all that was dynamic and progressive in US history, from democracy and economic development to migration and globalization." "Exploring the evidence that the USA will become a majority "nonwhite" nation in the next fifty years, this masterful account shows how race remains at the heart of American life in the twenty-first century."--Jacket.
Image of Whiteness
"From the advent of early colonial photography in the 19th century to contemporary 'white savior' social-media images, photography continues to play an integral role in the maintenance of white sovereignty. As various scholars have shown, the technology of the camera is not innocent, and nor are the images it produces. In this way, the invention and continuance of the 'white race' is not just a political, social and legal phenomenon, it is also a complexly visual one. In a time of revivified fascisms, from Donald Trump to Tommy Robinson, we must attempt to locate the image of whiteness anew, so that we can better understand its nonsensical construction. What does whiteness look like, and how might we begin to trace an anti-racist history of artistic resistance that works against it? 'The Image of Whiteness' seeks to introduce its reader to some important extracts from the troubling story of whiteness, to describe its falsehoods, its paradoxes and its oppressive nature, and to highlight some of the crucial work photographic artists have done to subvert and critique its image"--Publisher's description.
History Against Misery
"IN THIS LAVISHLY illustrated collection of activist essays, articles and reviews from the late 70s to the present, the noted author of The Wages of Whiteness, Towards the Abolition of Whiteness and other pathbreaking critical studies of America's "white problem" focuses on the complex issue of MISERABILISM in its many and invariably oppressive forms."--Publisher's website.
Haymarket Scrapbook
A truly immense, staggering, and wonderful anthology - profusely illustrated - focusing on the most world-reverberating vent in American labor history: the Haymarket Affair of 1886-67, and on the vast, incredibly varied and enduring influence it has exerted in the United States and across the globe. Divided into three massive sections - The Martyrs & Their Movements, Defense & Amnesty and The Heritage, contributors include William J Adelman, Carlotta Anderson, Paul Avrich, Sam Dolgoff, Richard Drinnon, Philip Foner, Joseph Jablonski, Bruce Nelson, Fred Thompson and many more. It features reprints of hard-to-find speeches and writings from the likes of the Haymarket martyrs themselves, Oscar Ameringer, Edward Bellamy, Ralph Chaplin, Voltaiarine de Cleyre, Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman, Sam Gompers, Mother Jones, Peter Kropotkin, Jo Labadie, Lucy Parsons, Kenneth Rexroth, Carl Sandburg and a whole lot more. Also included are an abundance of cartoons and other illustrations from the likes of Flavio Constantini, Walter Crane, Robert Green, Mike Konopacki, Ernest Riebe, Art Young, and numerous others. Truly a comprehensive, engaging, and enlightening work. 250 massive pages, oversize and abundant.
Construction of Whiteness
"This volume collects interdisciplinary essays that examine the crucial intersection between whiteness as a privileged racial category and the various material practices (social, cultural, political, and economic) that undergird white ideological influence in America. In truth, the need to examine whiteness as a problem has rarely been grasped outside academic circles. The ubiquity of whiteness--its pervasive quality as an ideal that is at once omnipresent and invisible--makes it the very epitome of the mainstream in America. And yet the undeniable relationship between whiteness and inequality in this country necessitates a thorough interrogation of its formation, its representation, and its reproduction. Essays here seek to do just that work. Editors and contributors interrogate whiteness as a social construct, revealing the underpinnings of narratives that foster white skin as an ideal of beauty, intelligence, and power. Contributors examine whiteness from several disciplinary perspectives, including history, communication, law, sociology, and literature. Its breadth and depth makes The Construction of Whiteness a refined introduction to the critical study of race for a new generation of scholars, undergraduates, and graduate students. Moreover, the interdisciplinary approach of the collection will appeal to scholars in African and African American studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, legal studies, and more. This collection delivers an important contribution to the field of whiteness studies in its multifaceted impact on American history and culture"--Provided by publisher.
Blur of the otherworldly
The Wages of Whiteness
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.
Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White
Even into the early part of the 20th century, ethnic groups such as Jews, Italians and Poles occupied a confused racial status in America. This text explores the murky realities of race in 20th century America, explaining how they transformed into the 'white ethnics' of today's America.