Tischauser’s purpose in this unnumbered annotated bibliography is to list the key books covering the historical and sociological studies on black/white race relations in the United States, published since 1945, in the hope that it will assist students, teachers, and researchers in the field. Throughout, the emphasis is on black/white relations, rather than race in general, since “How whites have treated African Americans has set the standard for dealing with other minority groups.”
Arranged A‐Z by author in eleven chapters, the entries comprise, in a curious order, author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date, with up to ten lines of annotation which end with collation details of pagination, illustrations, and indexes etc. All entries relate to English language books, no journal articles, which suggests that the bibliography’s value to the researcher is limited.
The first chapter includes the major works on the theory, history, and science of race relations, and describes the most recent books defining the scientific concept of race, while chapter 2 presents the most significant works on the origins and the changing nature of American slavery. Chapter 3 follows with studies of slavery in specific states and locations, including works on how American national, state, and constitutional law protected white supremacy, and denied human and natural rights to African Americans. Chapters 4‐7 present, in rough, overlapping chronological order, studies on the condition of “free blacks” before the Civil War; on the theories of racial superiority based on religious and scientific studies in the pre‐Civil War period; and on the post‐War period when white violence and terror successfully restored white control over the southern states, culminating in the rise of lynching parties (one or more lynchings occurred every week in the period 1885‐1930). Chapter 8 deals with racial segregation 1877‐1920 and concludes that segregation by skin colour has been a feature of American culture since the 1660s, when the first slave code was ratified in Virginia. Neither industrialisation nor urbanisation resulted in changes of attitude. Chapters 9 and 10 include studies on the origins of the Civil Rights movement and the fight against endemic racialism and legal segregation. And, finally, chapter 11 lists and annotates the major titles relating to the social, political, economic, and psychological costs of the US’s “total history of racism, prejudice and discrimination”.
Perhaps the only redeeming feature visible in this record of this dark and lamentable aspect of American culture is a note to the effect that the final chapter contains entries only for the most important and easily available works from “the truly huge number” published in this area. Most of the titles cited are, naturally enough, American publications, giving rise to doubts that Tischauer’s bibliography would be a worthwhile acquisition to any but the most specialised UK libraries. Its value as a study guide for US libraries, however, cannot be questioned.
