Race and Liberty in America - 2nd Edition by Jonathan Bean (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this long-awaited updated edition of Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, editor Jonathan Bean presents the timeless and urgent insights classical liberalism has to offer our troubled and polarized time. In 2009, when Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader was originally published, there was a spirit of optimism surrounding race relations. 15 years later, and that spirit is fraught with tensions, many regrettably familiar and some new. Which raises the question: what happened? And more importantly: how can we set things right? With new contributions from Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatteron Williams, Kenny Xu, David Bernstein, and Ilya Somin--as well as a plethora of primary source evidence from recent landmark US Supreme Court decisions--Bean champions the values of colorblindness, freedom, and equal constitutional protection for all individuals--regardless of race. It's a message that couldn't be more timely"--

Book Synopsis

In this long-awaited updated edition of Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, editor Jonathan Bean presents the timeless and urgent insights classical liberalism has to offer our troubled and polarized time.

In 2009, when Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader was originally published, there was a spirit of optimism surrounding race relations. Fifteen years later, a far different spirit prevails: one fraught with tensions, many regrettably familiar and some new.

Which raises the question: What happened? And more importantly: How can we set things right?

With new contributions from Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Wilfred Reilly, Kenny Xu, David Bernstein, and Ilya Somin--as well as a plethora of primary source evidence from recent landmark US Supreme Court decisions--Bean champions the values of colorblindness, freedom, and equal constitutional protection for all individuals--regardless of race.

It's a message that couldn't be more timely.

This first collection of writings on race and immigration to document the role of the classical liberal tradition--a tradition rooted in natural law principles of individual rights and liberty--reveals:

• Why classical liberals have espoused "unalien-able Rights" derived from God, individual freedom from government control, the Con-stitution as a guarantor of freedom, color-blind law, and capitalism;
• How classical liberals led the fights against slavery and racism against seemingly insurmountable odds and long before such positions became popular;
• What classical liberals' defense of a "natural right" to migration implies for today's immigration controversies;
• How capitalism undermines racism by penalizing those who act on their "taste for discrimination";
• Why America's obtuse preoccupation with left-versus-right politics overshadows solutions to racial division;
• How we can improve race relations in the United States today;
• And much, much more...

From the Declaration of Independence, the antislavery movement, post-Civil War reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression and World War II, the civil rights era, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, all the way up to the present day--each chapter in this new and improved updated edition illuminates how specific time periods in American history grappled with the demands of equality.

Citing such influential Americans as Thomas Jefferson, Louis Marshall, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Zora Neale Hurston, plus those missing from other books and heretofore lost to history, Bean shows how classical liberal thought on race relations has helped shape both law and public opinion ... and how it will need to do so again, if America as we know it is to prosper and thrive.

If you're ready to trade the tired and failed left-versus-right politics for timeless principles that actually work and uplift societies, read Race & Liberty in America.

Review Quotes

"Race & Liberty in America is a history buff's dream. Jonathan Bean has carefully and judiciously chosen the most significant speeches, documents, and journalistic works pertaining to the government's treatment of blacks from slavery to modern times. Here you can find wonderfully articulate pleas for equal treatment before the law and diabolic appeals to reject that. Throughout this book one sees the hard fought battles against a government unwilling to respect the natural law, incapable of acknowledging any limits on its power, and utterly contemptuous of the values that brought freedom and prosperity to a few. If you want a real feel for the civil rights battles your teachers and professors never taught you about, here it is."--Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News Channel; author, Dred Scott's Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America

"Race & Liberty in America is the race and civil rights anthology we have been waiting for. In our politicized age we often think of civil rights as a movement of racial pride and identity. But Martin Luther King's movement succeeded precisely because it used the principles of classical liberalism to shatter the idea that race or identity could be a source of entitlement. Black freedom did not come from an embrace of race; it came from the classic principles and values that finally prevailed over race. This book is a timely and necessary corrective."--Shelby Steele, Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; author, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era

"If you are interested in the real history of the Civil Rights movement in America--the radical ideas that set it in motion no matter where they came from--get ready for an intellectual thrill ride. There is no time for political posturing here. Race & Liberty in America is full of revelations and stunning in its honesty."--Juan Williams, Political Analyst, Fox News Channel; former Senior Correspondent, National Public Radio; author, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 and Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary

"It is hard to imagine a more timely book than the latest edition of Jonathan Bean's (ed.) Race and Liberty in America. The 1st edition of Race and Liberty was released in 2009, shortly after the election of the first Black U.S. President, and presented a classically liberal view of race relations to an optimistic--almost giddy--United States. No afterglow lasts forever, and this new version drops during a more jaded and cynical time: following a decade of Black Lives Matter protests and riots, the angry 'dissident right' response, and the often-bombastic Trump administration. But, this makes the insights from Bean's team more timely than ever: the book features original essays from Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams, David Bernstein, and many others, on topics ranging from a stout defense of inalienable rights to a presentation of the case for truly colorblind 'anti-racism.' I was proud to contribute, myself."--Wilfred Reilly, Assistant Professor of Political Sciences, Kentucky State University

"Jonathan Bean's book Race & Liberty in America is indeed essential reading. All too often classical liberals are attacked for their indifference or insensitivity on matters of race. This superb collection of material dispels that illusion. From the beginning of the Republic to the present day a policy of limited government and freedom of association holds the keys to racial harmony and the advancement of all Americans, regardless of their race or color."--Richard A. Epstein, James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago

"Readers will find a wealth of information in Jonathan Bean's outstanding book, Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader, a collection of primary source materials covering the great historical debates over race and ethnicity in America. Students, educators, civic leaders, and general readers can all greatly benefit from the book, drawing their own conclusions about the content, motivations, and intentions of leaders who have helped shape national policy."--Carol M. Swain, Director, Public Policy Studies and Professor of Political Science and Law, Vanderbilt University; author, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress

About the Author

Jonathan Bean is a research fellow at Independent Institute and a professor of history at Southern Illinois University. Bean is the author of several books, and his scholarly publications have appeared in such journals as The Independent Review, Journal of Policy History, and Enterprise and Society. Bean was a member of the Illinois State Advisory Panel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2011-2023) and is a member of the Academic Hall of Fame at St. Michael's College. He received the Henry Adams Prize for Best Book of the Year from the Society for History in the Federal Government and the Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History Conference. Bean has testified before the U.S. Senate on corruption in government contracting, consulted for the Japanese government, and served as an expert in court cases involving corporate litigation and a successful civil rights challenge to discrimination by the Small Business Administration.