Behind the Backlash: White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980

by Kenneth D. Durr

In this nuanced look at white working-class life and politics in twentieth-century America, Kenneth Durr takes readers into the neighborhoods, workplaces, and community institutions of blue-collar Baltimore in the decades after World War II.

Challenging notions that the "white backlash" of the 1960s and 1970s was driven by increasing race resentment, Durr details the rise of a working-class populism shaped by mistrust of the means and ends of postwar liberalism in the face of urban decline. Exploring the effects of desegregation, deindustrialization, recession, and the rise of urban crime, Durr shows how legitimate economic, social, and political grievances convinced white working-class Baltimoreans that they were threatened more by the actions of liberal policymakers than by the incursions of urban blacks.

While acknowledging the parochialism and racial exclusivity of white working-class life, Durr adopts an empathetic view of workers and their institutions. Behind the Backlash melds ethnic, labor, and political history to paint a rich portrait of urban life--and the sweeping social and economic changes that reshaped America's cities and politics in the late twentieth century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2003

Reviews

[Rebecca Dobrinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

When reading Kenneth D. Durr’s Behind the Backlash: White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980, it does not take long for someone who grew up among people from the northern industrial working-class to find the typical and familiar personality types. Grandparents, uncles, cousins, aunts, neighbors, friends – from the moderate to the extreme, they are all in this book. And, in some ways, Durr’s narrative put questions about them into context and makes more sense of some childhood memories. Durr’s book begs the question – is this group of northern industrial working-class whites really more than the uneducated racists they have historically been painted to be?

Simply put: yes, they are more than they seem. However, they are also what they seem. Durr attempted to put the white working-class of Baltimore into context by examining other factors (outside of race) that affected the formation of their conservative social and political views. For the most part, he succeeded in setting the stage for how this class of Baltimoreans made the transition from New Deal Democrats to Reagan Democrats and later outright Republicans. The white ethnic working classes brought with them the idea that: if you work hard enough, you will succeed in America. They then formed tightly-knit, mostly ethnically-based neighborhood enclaves where they could “work hard enough and succeed in America.”

Durr stressed how this hard work = success mentality drove much of the mentality of Baltimore’s white ethnic working-class. He attempted to use this, as well as class conflict, to supplant the more basic assumption that the white working class was purely and simply racist. And that this racism was the driving force behind the working-class backlash against neighborhood integration, block busting, school desegregation and busing, and the interstates. Overall, he succeeded in providing the reader with alternatives to the “uneducated racist” theory of working-class attitudes.

In his introduction, Durr wrote about how he expected this book to put “the urban blue-collar world in historical context” and to get to “the heart of white working-class protest.” (2, 3) On the first point, his use of a various sources went beyond most existing scholarship to develop a white ethnic working-class context. On the second point, getting to the heart things, he did not quite make his mark. Durr seemed to be entirely too dismissive on the affect of working-class racism. He also overstated the uniqueness of neighborhood associations in working-class Baltimore. Thomas Sugrue discussed Detroit’s working-class neighborhood associations in The Origins of the Urban Crisis and so did Kevin Boyle in Arc of Justice.

Durr’s assessment of the white working-class taking the brunt of integration’s and desegregation’s affects on urban areas has some merit. Middle- and upper-class whites had the means to flee urban areas and leave whoever could not afford to follow to pick up the pieces after the social upheaval of the 1950s and 1960s as well as during the economic woes of the 1970s. The white ethnic working-class watched as the government and the elite stepped in on some battles and completely ignored others.

On the surface, one can sympathize with the apparent abandonment of the white working-class by the government as well as middle-class whites. Under the surface, though, one should question why the working-class held on so strongly to racial differences rather than joining together to combat class differences. One of the underlying social threats that caused Southerners to implement Jim Crow policies was the potential of poor whites and African Americans joining together as a political and social force.

Overall, the white ethnic working class deserves its place in history. One cannot ignore the racist attitudes of the this group when studying twentieth century urban history, especially in light of the fact that many of them were the victims of racism themselves (Eastern Europeans and Italians specifically). However, it is time for historians to open the examination of these groups who have suffered much of the blame for urban racial crises.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though lacking at parts, worth four stars for centering a group whose beliefs, problems, and position who are rarely the concentrated subject of study.

Book is also quire uncanny to read in aftermath of 2016 election.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless it's required reading, as it was for me, I would avoid this book at all costs. It is a prime example of how to write an over-generalized, extremely biased case study in urban history.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Durr's explanation and analysis of white working class conservatism and resistance to integration frequently verges on apologia