Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace

by Nancy MacLean

In the 1950s, the exclusion of women and of black and Latino men from higher-paying jobs was so universal as to seem normal to most Americans. Today, diversity in the workforce is a point of pride. How did such a transformation come about?

In this bold and groundbreaking work, Nancy MacLean shows how African-American and later Mexican-American civil rights activists and feminists concluded that freedom alone would not suffice: access to jobs at all levels is a requisite of full citizenship. Tracing the struggle to open the American workplace to all, MacLean chronicles the cultural and political advances that have irrevocably changed our nation over the past fifty years.

Freedom Is Not Enough reveals the fundamental role jobs play in the struggle for equality. We meet the grassroots activists—rank-and-file workers, community leaders, trade unionists, advocates, lawyers—and their allies in government who fight for fair treatment, as we also witness the conservative forces that assembled to resist their demands. Weaving a powerful and memorable narrative, MacLean demonstrates the life-altering impact of the Civil Rights Act and the movement for economic advancement that it fostered.

The struggle for jobs reached far beyond the workplace to transform American culture. MacLean enables us to understand why so many came to see good jobs for all as the measure of full citizenship in a vital democracy. Opening up the workplace, she shows, opened minds and hearts to the genuine inclusion of all Americans for the first time in our nation's history.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Labor, Race, Grad School, Economics

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2006

About the author

Nancy MacLean is the award-winning author of Behind the Mask of Chivalry (a New York Times “noteworthy” book of the year) and Freedom is Not Enough, which was called by the Chicago Tribune “contemporary history at its best.” The William Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, she lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Ioana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant research and innovative thesis on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (for nondiscrimination in labor): that African Americans paved the way for other "minority" groups, including Latinos, white women, and Jews in the workforce.

The book covers over 60 years of labor organizing and configurations of Civil Rights laws, and argues that
(1) movement for labor equity were critical to the Civil Rights movement
(2) blacks built on a long tradition of oppression and structures built to fight discrimination in their struggle for Civil Rights, and others followed their lead
(3) the Civil Rights 1960s produced a transformation in culture towards increased diversity and inclusion BUT did not produce such a marked transformation in ACTUAL, material progress: blacks, women, latina/os are still paid less, still hold less prestigious jobs, etc than white men.

The book also reviews the fight over "affirmative action" and researchers claims of how previous liberals (i.e., some Jews, now "neoconservatives"), who had previously aligned with Civil Rights, now fought against Black inclusion in the academy and workforce.

[Carlye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and researched, could use slight chapter restructuring in my opinion

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of the best books I've ever read on the civil rights movement and fight for economic opportunity and how the two are, at the core, inseparable. As the title says, freedom is not enough. People must have the opportunity to earn a living and to provide for their families. Without this, the promise of freedom rings hollow.

I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that it is nearly impossible for those of us who were not deeply involved in the 50s & 60s movements or are not Ph.D.s in American history to really understand how important Title XII was to minority men and all women. This book is a first step toward understanding and appreciating how we now stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights.

[Jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightening read for those inclined to learn more about the economic factors that motivated the Civil Rights Movement.

While Freedom Is Not Enough has a nice working title, I felt like the following would have been equally good possible titles/subtitles:

Freedom Is Not Enough: The Civil Rights Movement and Conservative Guilt
Freedom Is Not Enough: Have you ever tried screaming through a book to (possibly) dead racists?
Freedom Is Not Enough: https://goo.gl/vGkUDc
Freedom Is Not Enough: Genuinely Laughing at Candid Conservative Remarks on Civil Rights

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful bottom up and top down historical approach that encompasses the trial and tribulations of the civil rights movement and civil rights legislation. Provides an interesting approach to cooperative organizations and affirmative action programs.

[Leah]

i bought this book even before the fabulous nancy maclean was going to be my bff's phd advisor. but now i must actually read it sometime.

[Kelli Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy MacLean’s Freedom is Not Enough is a critical analysis of the movements for economic inclusion and opportunity in the United States. MacLean’s work presents a clear history of the various movements for economic inclusion that spurred from the African American Civil Rights Movement. Throughout this work MacLean connects the feminist movement, Mexican American movement, and other minority movements for inclusion and anti-racism/sexism to the African American Civil Rights Movement. MacLean argues that the African American Civil Rights Movement set a precedent for other minority movements for freedom and equality in the United States workforce, and that these movements experienced resounding success until the late 1970s to early 1980s when the conservative movement gained steam. MacLean’s work follows the trajectory of different economic reform movements in the United States starting with the work of African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement and ending with the rise of Conservatism, and specifically neoconservatism in the face of these movements. MacLean focuses on the efforts of African Americans, women, and Mexican-Americans to secure workplace rights and economic opportunities in the United States. MacLean claims that the efforts of African Americans inspired women to use similar tactics to demand economic opportunities and inspired Mexican Americans to reject claims of whiteness and claim their “brownness”. MacLean’s thesis is a “new interpretation of the civil rights movement and its reverberations through the past half century” the focuses on the “fight to secure access to good jobs…[as] an essential element of full citizenship and of individual and group self-determination”. Not only does MacLean challenge current scholarship on the Civil Rights Movement by expanding the focus to include economic equality, she also analyzes’ the movement's ability to “...[contribute] to another change: the gradual but striking refashioning of American conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism over the last half century” (pg. 5, pg. 10).

[Mills College Library]

331.133 M1637 2006