Equality. An American Dilemma, 1866-1896

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Picador
Publisher Place: Usa
Publisher Year: 2019
Edition: First Edition

Description: 390 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: An in-depth study of American social movements after the Civil War and their lessons for today by a prizewinning historian The Civil War unleashed a torrent of claims for equality--in the chaotic years following the war, former slaves, womens rights activists, farmhands, and factory workers all engaged in the pursuit of the meaning of equality in America. This contest resulted in experiments in collective action, as millions joined leagues and unions. InEquality: An American Dilemma, 1866-1896, Charles Postel demonstrates how taking stock of these movements forces us to rethink some of the central myths of American history. Despite a nationwide push for equality, egalitarian impulses oftentimes clashed with one another. These dynamics get to the heart of the great paradox of the fifty years following the Civil War and of American history at large: Waves of agricultural, labor, and womens rights movements were accompanied by the deepening of racial discrimination and oppression. Herculean efforts to overcome the economic inequality of the first Gilded Age and the sexual inequality of the late-Victorian socialorder emerged alongside Native American dispossession, Chinese exclusion, Jim Crow segregation, and lynch law. Now, as Postel argues, the twenty-first century has ushered in a second Gilded Age of savage socioeconomic inequalities. Convincing and learned,Equalityexplores the roots of these social fissures and speaks urgently to the need for expansive strides toward equality to meet our contemporary crisis.

ISBN: 9781250619631