"David R. Roediger has been in the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history for decades. He first came to prominence as the author of The Wages of Whiteness, a classic study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, Roediger continues that history into the twentieth century. He recounts how ethnic groups considered white today--including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans--were initially viewed as undesirables by the WASP establishment. They eventually became part of white America, through the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. Once assimilated as fully white, many of them adopted the racism of those whites who formerly looked down on them. From ethnic slurs to restrictive covenants, Roediger explores the mechanisms by which immigrants came to enjoy the advantages of being white in America. A disturbing, necessary history, Working Toward Whiteness uses the past to illuminate the present. In an introduction to the 2018 edition, Roediger considers the resonance of his analysis in an era when most migrants to the United States no longer come from Europe"--Back cover
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