4.0
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
ByPublisher Description
New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection
One of Bill Gates’ “Amazing Books” of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction
An NPR Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction
Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction)
Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)
Finalist • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize
This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review).
Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities1713 Reviews
4.0
Lenny
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Kaitlyn
Created about 11 hours agoShare
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“Everyone should have to read this, especially considering how whitewashed most US history is taught in schools, this is important, important work. For such an incredibly comprehensive overview of systematic discrimination and segregation in the US, the information didn’t feel too inaccessible while reading. Rothstein was able to cover over a century to a century and a half of systematic, de jure segregation via court rulings, policy, state sanctioned violence, and public sentiment, so while at times it felt a bit dense, I think he did an excellent job presenting his evidence and making his arguments abundantly clear. This is a must read!!!”
BAmen33
Created 2 days agoShare
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Sandy
Created 3 days agoShare
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“This book was so informative and eye opening!”
Scott Dowling
Created 3 days agoShare
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“An excellent expository & a fascinating look at the skeletons in the closet of American history”