The wages of whiteness race and the making of the American working class

Synopsis

Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor historypioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger’s widelyacclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years ofworking-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explainedsimply with reference to economic advanta≥ rather, white working-class racismis underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanismsthat reinforce racial stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities ofwhite workers in opposition to Blacks.

In a new preface, Roediger reflects on the reception, influence, andcritical response to The Wages of Whiteness, while Kathleen Cleaver’sinsightful introduction hails the importance of a work that has become aclassic.