This book is the tenth in the excellent series, Major Issues in American History, which in past volumes has highlighted such major issues in US history as War and Peace; Church‐State Relations; Freedom of Expression; Women's Rights; and Labor Relations. With Race Relations we come to another issue of continuing and critical concern.
Three features characterise this smartly‐produced and timely work. First, there are the substantial background essays, varying from six to ten pages, which introduce each of the 15 sub‐divisions of the subject. Second, there are the 95 reprinted extracts from original source documents which illustrate the issues raised. Third, there is the detailed referencing of the background essays, the annotated research guides to books and web sites that conclude each section, plus the concluding Selected Bibliography and the Index. The book's sub‐title – A Reference Guide with Primary Documents – is well merited.
The feature that most impresses me is the selection of texts. We all suffer from sanitised and abridged accounts of events in this age of spin, sound bites and study boxes, so it is refreshing to have to hand the texts of the relevant documents. As reference librarians exhorting students and other users to consult copies of original documents, we are also aware that locating such copies is not easy and can inhibit our exhortations. Governor George C. Wallace's Inaugural Address as Alabama Governor in 1963 in which he states his anti‐Communist credo; the 1866 Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of the Verification; and the 2002 Report on Hate Crime and Discrimination against Arab‐Americans: The Post‐9/11 Backlash; are not items that come to hand easily. The sources are well‐selected to illustrate the themes, with five to seven documents to each of the 15 sections. None are long, but they do give a flavour of, and insight into, the important issues of the age. They are tasters to more serious research.
I was impressed, too, by the selection of topics. As librarians, we know that classification and taxonomy are everything. From Constituting the Republic: Who Counted as What?; A Trail of Tears: Indian Removal from East to West; and Nat's Rebellion: Slaves and America's Future, through the centuries to Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination Backlash; At the Borders Again? New Immigrants and Old Worries; and From Teheran to Baghdad: Facing Race with Arabs and Muslims, we have a carefully considered and imaginative range of issues in US history. This is the first book on US race and immigration issues I have seen – and I have reviewed several recently – in which Arabs, Muslims and the Japanese (“Yellow Peril”) have featured significantly. The war with Mexico, the American Civil War, the Indian Wars, and Slavery, are some of the other topics. The Annotated Research Guides are also well done, particularly in featuring web sites.
Of course, there will always be a wish for other documents, and maybe for longer, more thoughtful, and critical texts, but as a first bite into real history, history in the making, the book is excellent. I fear I will not do so, but I would love to read this book from cover to cover. Doing so would make me knowledgeable and wise. Recommended for all students of US history, and everybody else!
