Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader - Paperback

by Jonathan Bean (Author)

The history of civil rights in the United States is usually analyzed and interpreted through the lenses of modern conservatism and progressive liberalism. In Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, author Jonathan Bean argues that the historical record does not conveniently fit into either of these categories and that knowledge of the American classical liberal tradition is required to gain a more accurate understanding of the past, present, and future of civil liberties in the nation. By assembling and contextualizing classic documents, from the Declaration of Independence to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning school assignment by race, Bean demonstrates that classical liberalism differs from progressive liberalism in emphasizing individual freedom, Christianity, the racial neutrality of the Constitution, complete color-blindness, and free-market capitalism. A comprehensive and vital resource for scholars and students of civil liberties, Race and Liberty in America presents a wealth of primary sources that trace the evolution of civil rights throughout U.S. history.

Back Jacket

Offering a wealth of primary sources, Race and Liberty in America examines the antiracist, classical liberal tradition of individual liberty and equality, including the fight for abolition and the allied struggles against Chinese exclusion, abuse of Native Americans, Jim Crow, and Japanese internment. Editor Jonathan Bean provides a new interpretation of race relations, moving beyond the liberal and conservative perspectives that often dominate the topic. He analyzes numerous documents, from the Declaration of Independence to the 2006 Open Letter on Immigration and beyond, exploring America's entire race history. Citing such influential Americans as Thomas Jefferson, Louis Marshall, and Frederick Douglass, as well as individuals missing from previous investigations, Bean demonstrates the major impact of classical liberal thought on race relations and analyzes how it has helped shape both law and culture.Jonathan Bean, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of history at Southern Illinois University, is the author of Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration and Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies toward Small Business, 1936-1961.Cover photos, from left to right: Frederick Douglass (Library of Congress); Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson (reprinted by permission of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library); San Francisco schoolchildren, 1942 (Library of Congress); Zora Neale Hurston (Library of Congress).

Author Biography

Jonathan Bean is professor of history at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is the author of Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies Toward Small Business, 1936-1961 and Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration.