Toward Freedom Land: The Long Struggle for Racial Equality in America

by Harvard Sitkoff

Overview

The ongoing struggle for civil rights and social justice lies at the heart of America's evolving identity. The pursuit of equal rights is often met with social and political trepidation, forcing citizens and leaders to grapple with controversial issues of race, class, and gender. Renowned scholar Harvard Sitkoff has devoted his life to the study of the civil rights movement, becoming a key figure in global human rights discussions and an authority on American liberalism.

Toward Freedom Land assembles Sitkoff 's writings on twentieth-century race relations, representing some of the finest race-related historical research on record. Spanning thirty-five years of Sitkoff 's distingushed career, the collection features an in-depth examination of the Great Depression and its effects on African Americans, the intriguing story of the labor movement and its relationship to African American workers, and a discussion of the effects of World War II on the civil rights movement. His precise analysis illuminates multifaceted racial issues including the New Deal's impact on race relations, the Detroit Riot of 1943, and connections between African Americans, Jews, and the Holocaust.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813173801
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/23/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	413 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Harvard Sitkoff, professor emeritus of history at the University of New Hampshire, is the author of King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop.

Editorial Reviews

This collection provides new ways to study the role of gender in the post-Civil War South.

Southern Historian

This collection makes a number of Sitkoff's important essays available in one place and provides useful insight into an influential historian's thinking on an important subject.

Journal of Southern History

Harvard Sitkoff was writing about the 'long civil rights movement' before it was cool to do so.... This collection is a worthy testament to a long career of arguing and riling.

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Each essay is a delight to read, with the lucid prose, careful research, and insightful analysis that make Sitkoff the excellent historian he is.

The Historian

Sitkoff's work is a reminder of the hope and limitations of the black freedom struggle of the twentieth century.

H-Net Reviews

Toward Freedom Land continues Sitkoff's career-long quest to uproot some of the most persistent assumptions about the civil rights movement. At the same time, while he may 'aim to rile' as much as ever, the body of scholarship represented in these essays will also ground young scholars as they grapple with the movement's legacies and their own place within a continually controversial civil rights literature.

Journal of Southern Religion

In Toward Freedom Land, prominent historian Harvard Sitkoff uses his own essays over the last decades of the 20th century to trace the Black Americans' struggle for equality. Not only odes the author reexamine his writings, he also reflects on the usage of criticism of his scholarship... While this collection is meaningful to those who have previously read sitkoff's commentaries, it also provides an interesting retrospective on a turbulent century.

Catholic Library World

Over the past five decades, Harvard Sitkoff has established himself as one of the foremost voices on the black freedom struggle in the United States. Toward Freedom Land... continues that trend.

Florida Historical Quarterly

Whether analyzing the limitations of New Deal liberalism or the fusion of pragmatism and principle that shaped the racially progressive politics of Wendell Wilkie, Sitkoff conveys his arguments throughout with admirable clarity and concision.

Louisiana History

Toward Freedom Land is an excellent book that would complement the studies of any scholar of African American or racial history.

North Carolina Historical Review

Toward Freedom Land is a worthy contribution to the literature on the long struggle for racial justice.

Journal of African American History - Anne Marie Mingo

"Over the past five decades, Harvard Sitkoff has established himself as one of the foremost voices on the black freedom struggle in the United States. Toward Freedom Land... continues that trend." — Florida Historical Quarterly

"Sitkoff's work is a reminder of the hope and limitations of the black freedom struggle of the twentieth century." — H-Net Reviews

"This collection provides new ways to study the role of gender in the post-Civil War South." — Southern Historian

" Toward Freedom Land continues Sitkoff's career-long quest to uproot some of the most persistent assumptions about the civil rights movement. At the same time, while he may 'aim to rile' as much as ever, the body of scholarship represented in these essays will also ground young scholars as they grapple with the movement's legacies and their own place within a continually controversial civil rights literature." — Journal of Southern Religion

"In Toward Freedom Land, prominent historian Harvard Sitkoff uses his own essays over the last decades of the 20th century to trace the Black Americans' struggle for equality. Not only odes the author reexamine his writings, he also reflects on the usage of criticism of his scholarship... While this collection is meaningful to those who have previously read sitkoff's commentaries, it also provides an interesting retrospective on a turbulent century." — Catholic Library World

" Toward Freedom Land is an excellent book that would complement the studies of any scholar of African American or racial history." — North Carolina Historical Review

"Harvard Sitkoff was writing about the 'long civil rights movement' before it was cool to do so.... This collection is a worthy testament to a long career of arguing and riling." — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"This collection makes a number of Sitkoff's important essays available in one place and provides useful insight into an influential historian's thinking on an important subject." — Journal of Southern History

"Each essay is a delight to read, with the lucid prose, careful research, and insightful analysis that make Sitkoff the excellent historian he is." — The Historian

" Toward Freedom Land is a worthy contribution to the literature on the long struggle for racial justice." — Anne Marie Mingo, Journal of African American History

"Whether analyzing the limitations of New Deal liberalism or the fusion of pragmatism and principle that shaped the racially progressive politics of Wendell Wilkie, Sitkoff conveys his arguments throughout with admirable clarity and concision." — Louisiana History

From the Publisher