White book examines America’s participation in WWII, racial politics
World War
II and American Racial Politics: Public Opinion, the Presidency, and Civil
Rights Advocacy, a new book by Steven White, assistant
professor of political science
at the Maxwell School, was published on August 15 by Cambridge University Press.
Opening with an incident of racial violence in 1943, the book
examines America’s participation in World War II as it relates to post-war
racial politics. White analyzes survey
data and archival evidence to assess white racial attitudes and the executive
branch’s response to black civil rights advocacy. His findings indicate that
the racial attitudes of the white public at large did not liberalize during the
war. While the war against Nazi racism gave civil rights advocates a platform
against racial discrimination laws, there were many reported incidents of
racial violence at the same time, concentrated near military bases — an
ideological tension central to White’s book. It goes on to examine the
executive branch’s reaction to discrimination in the defense industry and
segregation in the military.
Steven White’s research examines
race and American political development, particularly the relationship between
war and the inclusion of marginalized groups. His
research has been published in Studies in
American Political Development, American
Politics Research, and Social Science
Quarterly. He has also written for the Washington
Post's Monkey Cage and the Los
Angeles Review of Books.
For more information about White’s book, visit
the Cambridge University Press website.
08/19/19