Thomas J. Sugrue is a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is currently Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of History and Sociology. Sugrue's first book, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in American History, the President's Book Award of the Social Science History Association, the Philip Taft Prize in Labor History, and the Urban History Association Prize for Best Book in North American Urban History. He has also published essays and reviews in The Washington Post, The Nation, London Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Detroit Free Press.
"Mention the civil rights movement and Birmingham, Selma, and
Memphis spring to mind. Rarely do we recall Boston, Pittsburgh, and
Cleveland. But there was a civil rights movement in the North,
Thomas J. Sugrue reminds us in "Sweet Land of Liberty," and it is
impossible to understand race relations today without pondering
what we can learn from it. Sugrue's exhaustively researched book
brings that movement back to life."—New York Times Book Review
"The election of Barack Obama... calls into question the rigid
dichotomies that have defined the American conflict over
inequality. Thomas Sugrue's evocative and richly documented new
book, Sweet Land of Liberty, is well timed because it addresses the
most blinding and fundamental of these dichotomies, that between
the southern land of slavery and Jim Crow and the ill-defined rest
of the country....The book covers more fresh ground than any
history of race has in many years. "—Newsday
“With telling detail and crystalline prose, Sugrue has explained
the rise, course of, and difficulties inherent in the freedom
struggles of black Americans in the North…. Every American
historian needs to read it, and so do policymakers.” —Christianity
Today, Book-of-the-Week
“Groundbreaking…unparalleled scope and fresh focus.”—Publishers
Weekly, starred review
“Sweeping, well-documented history of the struggle for racial
equality above the Mason-Dixon Line.”—Kirkus
"How can an administration elected through an appeal to racial
transcendence understand—and combat—the tenacity of racialized
injustice?…Thomas Sugrue’s book might be the timeliest place to
start."—New York Observer
"The struggle for civil rights in the North, often overshadowed,
gets a comprehensive review...Sugrue's scholarship is most
impressive in his analysis of the social, economic, and political
currents that swirled around the activists."—Boston Globe
"Sugrue’s book is something to be celebrated. We all know the
injustice that pervaded the South and the struggles of Civil Rights
movement to overcome it. But many of us don’t know that many
similar obstacles still had to be overcome in the North. Sugrue
humanizes the history he tells, using individuals’ narratives to
remind us of an important truth: “the struggle for racial equality
in the North continues.”—Harvard Crimson
"Sweet Land of Liberty…is to be praised for how it highlights the
richness, complexity, and endurance of a long black freedom
struggle north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It skillfully guides the
reader through many twists and turns over nearly a century of civil
rights history. It is a profoundly important book that reminds us
that the Civil Rights struggle was a national, not simply a
regional phenomenon."—ehistory
"Historian Thomas J. Sugrue writes incisively about racial
discrimination in the North...richly detailed."—Wilson
Quarterly
"In Sweet Land of Liberty, Sugrue supplies a sweeping and searching
re-interpretation of the black freedom struggle north of the
Mason-Dixon line from the 1920s to the present."—Tulsa World
“Sugrue’s chronicle covers a pivotal era in American history in a
comprehensive sweep.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
“Book-Pick-of-the-Week”
“The most important work of American history published this
year.”—Religion in American History Blogspot
“Brims with insights broadening and deepening understanding of the
black-white mold of modern America….Essential for collections on
U.S. history, social movements, race relations, or civil
rights.” —Library Journal
"Although dozens of books have been written about the struggle for
civil rights in the South, this is one of the first documented
histories of the fight that occurred north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
The author, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, sifted
through government reports, civil rights group records, the work of
black journalists and even the personal accounts of ordinary people
to document how our political and social institutions created and
maintained racial separation and racial privilege. Covering a span
from the 1920s through the present, this unconventional and
groundbreaking book examines 80 of the most defining years of
America's past. This landmark study is elegantly written and
nothing less than a stunning achievement."—Tuscon Citizen
“Sweet Land of Liberty is a revelatory, daring, and ambitious book
that overturns the conventional histories of America’s struggle for
civil rights. In this powerful narrative, Thomas Sugrue draws
compelling vignettes of the forgotten women and men who fought
against the odds for racial justice in the North. He persuasively
argues that what happened on the streets, churches, and courtrooms
of Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles is every bit as important for
understanding modern America as the oft-told histories of the
Southern freedom struggle. This is one of those rare books that
completely reorients our understanding of the past.”—Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor, Harvard
University
“Thomas Sugrue's crisply written and massively sourced book
delivers the northern half of the civil rights story with an
authority that should make 'Sweet Land of Liberty'
indispensable.”—David Levering Lewis, author of a biography of the
life and times of W.E.B. Du Bois
"With this landmark study, Thomas Sugrue has accomplished the
extraordinary: he’s transformed the history of the civil rights
movement, shifting it from the south to the north, from Montgomery,
Birmingham, and Selma, to Harlem, Levittown, and the mean streets
of Detroit. In the process, he’s stripped away the comforting sense
shared by so many Americans that the struggle for racial justice is
complete, the victory won. If ever a book deserved to be essential
reading, this is it." —Kevin Boyle, author of the National Book
Award-winning Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and
Murder in the Jazz Age
"Thomas Sugrue's, Sweet Land of Liberty is one of the most
important works on modern American history to appear in recent
memory. It challenges and transforms what we think, not only about
the struggle for civil rights, but more broadly about the entire
course of American social and political development. It is one of
those books that truly changes our historical perspective."—Steve
Hahn, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning, A Nation Under Our
Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to
the Great Migration.
"Richly researched, elegantly written, and monumental in scope,
Sweet Land of Liberty offers a riveting portrait of racial change
in the most putatively free and equal part of the United States. In
shifting attention to northern streets and confrontations, this
painful yet stirring narrative eloquently enlarges the scope of
American history, compellingly extends our understanding of social
movements, and thoughtfully reminds us that deep and just change
does not come easily."—Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of
Political Science and History, Columbia University.
"Mention the civil rights movement and Birmingham, Selma, and
Memphis spring to mind. Rarely do we recall Boston, Pittsburgh, and
Cleveland. But there was a civil rights movement in the North,
Thomas J. Sugrue reminds us in "Sweet Land of Liberty," and it is
impossible to understand race relations today without pondering
what we can learn from it. Sugrue's exhaustively researched book
brings that movement back to life."-New York Times Book
Review
"The election of Barack Obama... calls into question the rigid
dichotomies that have defined the American conflict over
inequality. Thomas Sugrue's evocative and richly documented new
book, Sweet Land of Liberty, is well timed because it
addresses the most blinding and fundamental of these dichotomies,
that between the southern land of slavery and Jim Crow and the
ill-defined rest of the country....The book covers more fresh
ground than any history of race has in many years.
"-Newsday
"With telling detail and crystalline prose, Sugrue has explained
the rise, course of, and difficulties inherent in the freedom
struggles of black Americans in the North.... Every American
historian needs to read it, and so do policymakers."
-Christianity Today, Book-of-the-Week
"Groundbreaking...unparalleled scope and fresh
focus."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Sweeping, well-documented history of the struggle for racial
equality above the Mason-Dixon Line."-Kirkus
"How can an administration elected through an appeal to racial
transcendence understand-and combat-the tenacity of racialized
injustice?...Thomas Sugrue's book might be the timeliest place to
start."-New York Observer
"The struggle for civil rights in the North, often overshadowed,
gets a comprehensive review...Sugrue's scholarship is most
impressive in his analysis of the social, economic, and political
currents that swirled around the activists."-Boston
Globe
"Sugrue's book is something to be celebrated. We all know the
injustice that pervaded the South and the struggles of Civil Rights
movement to overcome it. But many of us don't know that many
similar obstacles still had to be overcome in the North. Sugrue
humanizes the history he tells, using individuals' narratives to
remind us of an important truth: "the struggle for racial equality
in the North continues."-Harvard Crimson
"Sweet Land of Liberty...is to be praised for how it
highlights the richness, complexity, and endurance of a long black
freedom struggle north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It skillfully
guides the reader through many twists and turns over nearly a
century of civil rights history. It is a profoundly important book
that reminds us that the Civil Rights struggle was a national, not
simply a regional phenomenon."-ehistory
"Historian Thomas J. Sugrue writes incisively about racial
discrimination in the North...richly detailed."-Wilson
Quarterly
"In Sweet Land of Liberty, Sugrue supplies a sweeping and
searching re-interpretation of the black freedom struggle north of
the Mason-Dixon line from the 1920s to the present."-Tulsa
World
"Sugrue's chronicle covers a pivotal era in
American history in a comprehensive sweep." -Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, "Book-Pick-of-the-Week"
"The most important work of American history published this
year."-Religion in American History Blogspot
"Brims with insights broadening and deepening understanding of the
black-white mold of modern America....Essential for collections on
U.S. history, social movements, race relations, or civil rights."
-Library Journal
"Although dozens of books have been written about the struggle for
civil rights in the South, this is one of the first documented
histories of the fight that occurred north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
The author, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, sifted
through government reports, civil rights group records, the work of
black journalists and even the personal accounts of ordinary people
to document how our political and social institutions created and
maintained racial separation and racial privilege. Covering a span
from the 1920s through the present, this unconventional and
groundbreaking book examines 80 of the most defining years of
America's past. This landmark study is elegantly written and
nothing less than a stunning achievement."-Tuscon
Citizen
"Sweet Land of Liberty is a revelatory, daring, and ambitious book
that overturns the conventional histories of America's struggle for
civil rights. In this powerful narrative, Thomas Sugrue draws
compelling vignettes of the forgotten women and men who fought
against the odds for racial justice in the North. He persuasively
argues that what happened on the streets, churches, and courtrooms
of Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles is every bit as important for
understanding modern America as the oft-told histories of the
Southern freedom struggle. This is one of those rare books that
completely reorients our understanding of the past."-Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor, Harvard
University
"Thomas Sugrue's crisply written and massively sourced book
delivers the northern half of the civil rights story with an
authority that should make 'Sweet Land of Liberty'
indispensable."-David Levering Lewis, author of a biography of the
life and times of W.E.B. Du Bois
"With this landmark study, Thomas Sugrue has accomplished the
extraordinary: he's transformed the history of the civil rights
movement, shifting it from the south to the north, from Montgomery,
Birmingham, and Selma, to Harlem, Levittown, and the mean streets
of Detroit. In the process, he's stripped away the comforting sense
shared by so many Americans that the struggle for racial justice is
complete, the victory won. If ever a book deserved to be essential
reading, this is it." -Kevin Boyle, author of the National Book
Award-winning Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and
Murder in the Jazz Age
"Thomas Sugrue's, Sweet Land of Liberty is one of the most
important works on modern American history to appear in recent
memory. It challenges and transforms what we think, not only about
the struggle for civil rights, but more broadly about the entire
course of American social and political development. It is one of
those books that truly changes our historical perspective."-Steve
Hahn, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning, A Nation Under Our
Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to
the Great Migration.
"Richly researched, elegantly written, and monumental in scope,
Sweet Land of Liberty offers a riveting portrait of racial change
in the most putatively free and equal part of the United States. In
shifting attention to northern streets and confrontations, this
painful yet stirring narrative eloquently enlarges the scope of
American history, compellingly extends our understanding of social
movements, and thoughtfully reminds us that deep and just change
does not come easily."-Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of
Political Science and History, Columbia University.
According to Sugrue (The Origins of the Urban Crises), most histories of the civil rights movement "focus on the South and the epic battles between nonviolent protestors and the defenders of Jim Crow during the 1950s and 1960s." The author's groundbreaking account covers a wider time frame and turns the focus northward to "the states with the largest black populations outside the south." Sugrue highlights seminal people, books and organizations in his tightly focused study that restores many largely forgotten Northern activists as integral participants in the civil rights movement--such as Philadelphia pastor Leon Sullivan; Roxanne Jones of the "welfare rights movement" and first black woman elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate; and James Forman, advocate for reparations. The National Negro Congress, the Revolutionary Action Movement and the National Black Political Convention share history with the NAACP and the Urban League, as Sugrue traces the phoenixlike risings from the ashes of old organizations into new. Dense with "boycotts, pickets, agitation, riots, lobbying, litigation, and legislation," the book is heavily detailed but consistently readable with unparalleled scope and fresh focus. (Nov.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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