Race, Social Reform, and the Making of a Middle Class - by Joseph O Jewell (Paperback)

About the Book

Periods of time characterized by large scale social change encourage reinterpretations of the meanings of categories like race and class, strategies for their reproduction, and their relationship to one another as social structures. The racialized nature of class identities ma...

Book Synopsis

Periods of time characterized by large scale social change encourage reinterpretations of the meanings of categories like race and class, strategies for their reproduction, and their relationship to one another as social structures. The racialized nature of class identities makes movements which attempt to redistribute class resources along racial lines a challenge to both racial boundaries and class boundaries, highlighting their intersection through the strategies and resources associated with social reproduction.

Review Quotes

Clear and logical... its legacy will be precisely in what it does to draw attention to and encourage further research on the specific historical processes of racial class formation in the African-American community.

Joseph Jewell's book is a cutting-edge effort in sociologically informed historical analysis, one that probes deeply into the making of the Black middle class, primarily in the city of Atlanta in the years 1875-1915. Demonstrating significant research imagination, Jewell shows clearly, and with original data collection and reanalysis of previous studies, how the social reform efforts of northern missionary organizations both facilitated and frustrated the growth of a new Black middle class.

This book definitely expands our understanding of the urban post-emanicpation experience of southern African Americans.

About the Author

Joseph O. Jewell is an associate professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, where he specializes in sociology of education, historical sociology and race/ethnic relations. His work explores historical intersections between race, class, and gender in the United States.