Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader

by Jonathan Bean (Editor)

Overview

In this long-awaited updated edition of Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, editor Jonathan Bean draws on timeless and urgent insights from America’s most principled anti-racist standard-bearers—and they could not be more relevant for our troubled and polarized time. 

In 2009, when Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader was originally published, there was a spirit of optimism surrounding race relations. Fifteen years later, a far different spirit prevails: one fraught with tensions, many regrettably familiar and some new.

Which raises the question: What happened? And more importantly: How can we set things right?

With new contributions from Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Wilfred Reilly, Kenny Xu, David Bernstein, and Ilya Somin—as well as a plethora of primary source evidence from recent landmark US Supreme Court decisions—Bean champions the values of colorblindness, freedom, and equal constitutional protection for all individuals—regardless of race.

It’s a message that couldn’t be more timely.

This first collection of writings on race and immigration to document the role of the classical liberal tradition—a tradition rooted in natural law principles of individual rights and liberty—reveals:

• Why classical liberals have espoused “unalien­able Rights” derived from God, individual freedom from government control, the Con­stitution as a guarantor of freedom, color-blind law, and capitalism;
• How classical liberals led the fights against slavery and racism against seemingly insurmountable odds and long before such positions became popular;
• What classical liberals’ defense of a “natural right” to migration implies for today’s immigration controversies;
• How capitalism undermines racism by penalizing those who act on their “taste for discrimination”;
• Why America’s obtuse preoccupation with left-versus-right politics overshadows solutions to racial division;
• How we can improve race relations in the United States today;
• And much, much more…

From the Declaration of Independence, the antislavery movement, post–Civil War reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression and World War II, the civil rights era, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, all the way up to the present day—each chapter in this new and improved updated edition illuminates how specific time periods in American history grappled with the demands of equality. 

Citing such influential Americans as Thomas Jefferson, Louis Marshall, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Zora Neale Hurston, plus those missing from other books and heretofore lost to history, Bean shows how classical liberal thought on race relations has helped shape both law and public opinion … and how it will need to do so again, if America as we know it is to prosper and thrive.

If you’re ready to trade the tired and failed left-versus-right politics for timeless principles that actually work and uplift societies, read Race & Liberty in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598133981
Publisher:	Independent Institute, The
Publication date:	02/04/2025
Edition description:	Updated edition
Pages:	425
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jonathan Bean is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of History at Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 1994 and he has taught at Juniata College and St. Michael’s College. Professor Bean is the recipient of the Henry Adams Prize for Best Book of the Year from the Society for History in the Federal Government and Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History Conference. He is a member of the Academic Hall of Fame at St. Michael’s College.

Jonathan Bean is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and a Professor of History at Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Ohio State University in 1994. Bean is the author of Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, which received praise from Choice (American Library Association) and Diverse Issues in Higher Education (f

Table of Contents

List of Documents xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction: Civil Rights and Classical Liberalism 1

1 Antislavery (1776-1853) 13

2 The Republican Era (1854-1876) 45

3 Colorblindness in a Color-Conscious Era (1877-1920) 77

4 Republicans and Race (1921-1932) 137

5 The Roosevelt Years (1933-1945) 163

6 Classical Liberals in the Civil Rights Era (1946-1964) 185

7 Individualists in an Age of Group Discrimination (1965-Present) 231

Conclusion: Past, Present, Future 307

Index 315

About the Editor 331

Editorial Reviews

If you are interested in the real history of the Civil Rights movement in America — the radical ideas that set it in motion no matter where they came from — then get ready for an intellectual thrill ride. There is no time for political posturing here. Race and Liberty in America is full of revelations and stunning in its honesty.

Juan Williams

The editor compels the reader to think about our society's evolution as he provides the materials necessary to consider its direction.

Salisbury Post

An enlightening read that will leave the reader feeling both inspired and optimistic about the future.

TheNewAmerican.com

"With its wide collection of writings on race and immigration, Race and Liberty neatly sidesteps left-right characterization and permits the pure ideas of those who endeavored to focus the debate on our common origins, dignity, and destiny to shine throughit provides an insight into the intellectual foundation of civil right s traditions firmly rooted in American principles: individual freedom, equality before the law and fidelity to the Constitution."

Freedoms Journal Magazine Blog - Cerere Kihoro

"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.

BookBargainsandPreviews.com

He celebrates the end of slavery, anti-immigration laws, and race-based quotas, and rejects the legitimacy of racial pride, diversity, and affirmative action.

Choice

Bean balances readable and relatively short excerpts with intelligent commentary in the introductions. The big message of the book is that many of our great thinkers shared the vision that equality and progress will result from freedom, not the heavy and coercive hand of the State.

Freeman - Foundation for Economic Education

Focusing on pieces that exemplify aspects of classical liberalism, including independence from government and individual freedom, the editor provides a primary sourcebook for stories "of people and the difference they made in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds."

Rebecca Price

"If you are interested in the real history of the Civil Rights movement in America—the radical ideas that set it in motion no matter where they came from—get ready for an intellectual thrill ride. There is no time for political posturing here. Race and Liberty in America is full of revelations and stunning in its honesty."—Juan Williams, Senior Correspondent, National Public Radio; author, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 and Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary

From the Publisher

Bean balances readable and relatively short excerpts with intelligent commentary in the introductions. The big message of the book is that many of our great thinkers shared the vision that equality and progress will result from freedom, not the heavy and coercive hand of the State.

Freeman Richard Iris Sean Larry Victoria Becky Martha Judith Charles