Race in America

by Matthew Desmond, Mustafa Emirbayer

A groundbreaking approach to thinking about race and racism today.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Race, Social Justice, History, Politics, Read For School

1429 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

Matthew Desmond is social scientist and urban ethnographer. He is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. He is also a Contributing Writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Desmond is the author of over fifty academic studies and several books, including "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.

"Evicted" was listed as one of the Best Books of 2016 by The New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, National Public Radio, and several other outlets. It has been named one of the Best 50 Nonfiction Books of the Last 100 Years and was included in the 100 Best Social Policy Books of All Time.

Desmond's research and reporting focuses on American poverty and public policy. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society. He has been listed among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.”

Reviews

[Mikayla Beckman]

I KNOW I don't rate textbooks. Its my rule. However, if I were to rate this textbook, I would give it 5 stars. This was seriously my favorite textbook I have ever been forced to read. It was written in such a contemporary and engaging way. I found all of the topics fascinating and honestly, I would recommend reading this even if it isn't for a class. Shout out to professor pedriana in sociology 134 for choosing this beauty of a textbook for his class.

[Caleb Woolsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read! They synthesize decades of research surround race relations and history in America. They explain the disparities and inequalities in a fair and comprehensive fashion. This book is accessible to any reader and is definitely worth the read for those who desire to learn the truth.

[Jo S · Rating 1 out of 5]

To say the absolute least, this book is muddled with neo-liberal biases that consistently aims to demonize "white people" and creates an incredibly inaccurate - truly dishonest - structure. Every chapter is clearly built on opinions from these two "sociologists" (who seemingly failed every history class ever taken); further in the chapters the original points (opinions) of the authors will be lost in historical facts and some interesting pieces on true events - events whose significance is lost in the filth that is the autors' opinions about said events; finally, the chapters will always conclude with a feeble attempt to link other sociologists' works and statistics to their original opinions in an attempt to substantiate them, despite the obvious disconnect between the facts and statistics (regardless of their accuracy/inaccuracy) and their inherently absence of proof of racism. Honestly, just read this book to understand the amount of dishonesty I am speaking of, but I would recommend doing so with a red pen.

[stephen baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy read that helps break down american racial hierarchies and allows readers to conceptualize what these hierarchies actually do to oppressed communities.

[lexi :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this book for one of my classes and it was very interesting. it didn’t feel like a textbook

[Sienna Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic textbook that I read for my ethnic studies class even though my teacher only had us read pages 3-18 lol. I usually struggle SO bad to read non-fiction, but this was great and easy to comprehend since I hate when people use huge words in non-fiction for no reason. It was very informative and I learned things that I never even thought about before.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contains some good and true information, but it's hard to overlook the complete liberal bias. It's so unbalanced that it reaches the point of being dishonest on some subjects.

[josie °☆.。.:* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much! Wonderful class

[Joshua Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Readable, digestible and important text book on how race has shaped America and how America has shaped race.

[Katelyn Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite text book I was ever asked to read. Fundamental changed the way I see the world.

[Mills College Library]

305.80097 D464 2016